THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


SOUTHERN  BRANCH, 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA, 

LIBRARY, 

'LOS.  ANG^L,.S.  CALIF. 


POCAHONTAS  SAVING  THE  LIFE  OF  CAPTAIN  JOHN  SMITH 


UNITED  STATES 

FROM  THE  LANDING   OF  COLUMBUS  TO 

THE  SIGNING   OF   THE  PEACE 

PROTOCOL  WITH  SPAIN 


BY 

JULIAN   HAWTHORNE 

IN  THREE  VOLUMES 


ILLUSTRATED 


VOL.  I 


46714 

NEW  YORK 

PETER   FENELON  COLLIER  &  SON 

MCM 


COPYRIGHT,  1898, 

BY 

PETER  FENELON  COLLIER. 


e 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  ONE 


INTRODUCTION •       •       .      v 

BEFORE  DAWN •••..! 

I.  COLUMBUS,  RALEIGH  AND  SMITH     ......      13 

n.  THE  FREIGHT  OP  THE  "MAYFLOWER"  .....      43 

III.  THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  PURITANS 64 

IV.  FROM  HUDSON  TO  STUYVESANT      .       .       .       .       .       .93 

V.  LIBERTY,  SLAVERY  AND  TYRANNY  .       .       .       .       .       .121 

VI.  CATHOLIC,  PHILOSOPHER  AND  REBEL 149 

VII.  QUAKER,  YANKEE  AND  KING 178 

VIII.  THE  STUARTS  AND  THE  CHARTER  ......    206 

IX.  THE  NEW  LEAF,  AND  THE  BLOT  ON  IT       .       .       .       .    236 

X.  FIFTY  YEARS  OF  FOOLS  AND  HEROES 265 

XI.  QUEM  JUPITER  VULT  PERDERE 292 

XII.  THE  PLAINS  OF  ABRAHAM  AND  THE  STAMP  ACT        „       .    320 
XIII.  THE  PASSING  OF  THE  RUBICON  .  ,    849 


(iii) 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


VOLUME    ONE 


POCAHONTAS    SAVING    THE    LIFE    OF    CAPTAIN    JOHN    SMITH     •          •          • 

A  PURITAN'S  HOME — RETURNING  FROM  THE  HUNT        .       •       •       • 
INDIANS  ATTACKING  NEW  ENGLAND  SETTLERS        .       .       •       •       • 

SCENE  IN  NEW  AMSTERDAM,  1660 •       . 

"TREPANNING"  MEN  TO  BE  SENT  TO  THE  COLONIES      .       .       .       . 

MASSACRE  BY  INDIANS  AT  JAMESTOWN,  VA.,  1644 

EARLY  NEW  ENGLAND  SCENE— A  QUAKER  IN  THE  STOCKS.       .       . 
WILLIAM  PENN  MAKING  A  TREATY  WITH  THE  INDIANS        .       .       . 

AN  INCIDENT  OF  KING  PHILIP'S  WAR 

ARRESTING  A  WOMAN  CHARGED  WITH  WITCHCRAFT     .... 
DEATH  OF  GENERAL  BRADDOCK — WASHINGTON  MOVING  THE  VIRGINIA 

TROOPS  FORWARD 

DEATH  OF  GENERAL  WOLFE,  AT  QUEBEC,  SEPT.  18,  1759     .       c       , 


INTRODUCTION 


HEN  we  speak  of  History,  we  may  mean 
either  one  of  several  things.  A  savage  will 
make  picture-marks  on  a  stone  or  a  bone  or 
a  bit  of  wood;  they  serve  to  recall  to  him 
and  his  companions  certain  events  which  ap- 
peared remarkable  or  important  for  one  or 
another  reason;  there  was  an  earthquake,  or  a  battle, 
or  a  famine,  or  an  invasion:  the  chronicler  himself,  or 
some  fellow-tribesman  of  his,  may  have  performed  some 
notable  exploit.  The  impulse  to  make  a  record  of  it 
was  natural:  posterity  might  thereby  be  informed,  after 
the  chronicler  himself  had  passed  away,  concerning  the 
perils,  the  valor,  the  strange  experiences  of  their  ances- 
tors. Such  records  were  uniformly  brief,  and  no  attempt 
was  made  to  connect  one  with  another,  or  to  interpret 
them.  We  find  such  fragmentary  histories  among  the  re- 
mains of  our  own  aborigines;  and  the  inscriptions  of 
Egypt  and  Mesopotamia  are  the  same  in  character  and 
intention,  though  more  elaborate.  Warlike  kings  thus  en- 
deavored, from  motives  of  pride,  to  perpetuate  the  memory 
of  their  achievements.  At  the  time  when  they  were  in- 
scribed upon  the  rock,  or  the  walls  of  the  tombs,  or  the 

(v) 


vi  INTRODUCTION 

pedestals  of  the  statues,  they  had  no  furthe'r  value  than 
this.  But  after  the  lapse  of  many  ages,  they  acquire  a 
new  value,  far  greater  than  the  original  one,  and  not  con- 
templated by  the  scribes.  They  assume  their  proper  place 
in  the  long  story  of  mankind,  and  indicate,  each  in  its  de- 
gree, the  manner  and  direction  of  the  processes  by  which 
man  has  become  what  he  is,  from  what  he  was.  Thereby 
there  is  breathed  into  the  dead  fact  the  breath  of  life;  it 
rises  from  its  tomb  of  centuries,  and  does  its  appointed 
work  in  the  mighty  organism  of  humanity. 

In  a  more  complex  state  of  society,  a  class  of  persons 
comes  into  being  who  are  neither  protagonists,  nor  slaves, 
but  observers;  and  they  meditate  on  events,  and  seek  to 
fathom  their  meaning.  If  the  observer  be  imaginative,  the 
picturesque  side  of  things  appeals  to  him ;  he  dissolves  the 
facts,  and  recreates  them  to  suit  his  conceptions  of  beauty 
and  harmony;  and  we  have  poetry  and  legend.  Another 
type  of  mind  will  give  us  real  histories,  like  those  of  He- 
rodotus, Thucydides,  Tacitus  and  Livy,  which  are  still  a 
model  in  their  kind.  These  great  writers  took  a  broad 
point  of  view;  they  saw  the  end  from  the  beginning  of 
their  narratives;  they  assigned  to  their  facts  their  relative 
place  and  importance,  and  merged  them  in  a  pervading 
atmosphere  of  opinion,  based  upon  the  organic  relation  of 
cause  and  effect.  Studying  their  works,  we  are  enabled 
to  discern  the  tendencies  and  developments  of  a  race,  and 
to  note  the  effects  of  civilization,  character,  vice,  virtue, 
and  of  that  sum  of  them  all  which  we  term  fate. 

During  what  are  called  the  Dark  Ages  of  Europe,  his- 
tory fell  into  the  hands  of  that  part  of  the  population 
which  alone  was  conversant  with  letters — the  priestly  class; 


INTRODUCTION  vii 

and  the  annals  they  have  left  to  us  have  none  of  the  value 
which  belongs  to  the  productions  of  classical  antiquity. 
They  were  again  mere  records;  or  they  were  mystical  or 
fanciful  tales  of  saints  and  heroes,  composed  or  distorted 
for  the  glorification  of  the  church,  and  the  strengthening 
of  the  influence  of  the  priests  over  the  people.  But  these 
also,  in  after  times,  took  on  a  value  which  they  had  not 
originally  possessed,  and  become  to  the  later  student  a 
precious  chapter  of  the  history  of  mankind. 

Meanwhile,  emerging  august  from  the  shadows  of  an- 
tiquity, we  have  that  great  body  of  literature  of  which  our 
own  Bible  is  the  highest  type,  which  purports  to  present 
the  story  of  the  dealings  of  the  Creator  with  His  creatures. 
These  wonderful  books  appear  to  have  been  composed  in 
a  style,  and  on  a  principle,  the  secret  of  which  has  been 
lost.  The  facts  which  they  relate,  often  seemingly  trivial, 
and  disconnected,  are  really  but  a  material  veil,  or  symbol, 
concealing  a  spiritual  body  of  truth,  which  is  neither  triv- 
ial nor  disconnected,  but  an  organized,  orderly  and  catholic 
revelation  of  the  nature  of  man,  of  the  processes  of  his 
spiritual  regeneration,  of  his  final  reconciliation  with  the 
Divine.  The  time  will  perhaps  come  when  some  inspired 
man  or  men  will  be  enabled  to  handle  our  modern  history 
with  the  same  esoteric  insight  which  informed  the  Hebrew 
scribes,  when  they  used  the  annals  of  the  obscure  tribe  to 
which  they  belonged  as  a  cover  under  which  to  present  the 
relations  of  God  with  all  the  human  race,  past  and  to  come. 

Modern  history  tends  more  and  more  to  become  philo- 
sophic: to  be  an  argument  and  an  interpretation,  rather 
than  a  bald  statement  of  facts.  The  facts  contained  in  oux 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

best  histories  bear  much  the  same  relation  to  the  history 
itself,  that  the  flesh  and  bones  of  the  body  bear  to  the  per- 
son who  lives  in  and  by  them.  The  flesh  and  bones,  or  the 
facts,  have  to  exist;  but  the  only  excuse  for  their  existence 
is,  that  the  person  may  have  being,  or  that  the  history  may 
trace  a  spiritual  growth  or  decadence.  There  was  perhaps 
a  time  when  the  historian  found  a  difficulty  in  collecting 
facts  enough  to  serve  as  a  firm  foundation  for  his  edifice  of 
comment  and  deduction ;  but  nowadays,  his  embarrassment 
is  rather  in  the  line  of  making  a  judicious  selection  from 
the  enormous  mass  of  facts  which  research  and  the  facili- 
ties of  civilization  have  placed  at  his  disposal.  Not  only  is 
every  contemporary  event  recorded  instantly  in  the  news- 
papers and  elsewhere;  but  new  light  is  being  constantly 
thrown  upon  the  past,  even  upon  the  remotest  confines 
thereof.  Some  of  the  facts  thus  brought  before  us  are 
original  and  vital;  others  are  mere  echoes,  repetitions,  and 
unimportant  variations.  But  the  historian,  if  he  wishes  his 
work  to  last,  must  build  as  does  the  Muse  in  Emerson's 
verse,  with 

.     .     .     .     "Rafters  of  immortal  pine, 
Cedar  incorruptible,  worthy  her  design." 

Or  he  may  be  sure  that  the  historian  who  comes  after  him 
will  sift  the  wheat  from  his  chaff ,  and  leave  him  no  better 
reputation  than  that  of  the  quarry  from  which  the  marble 
of  the  statue  comes.  He  must  tell  a  consecutive  story,  but 
must  eschew  all  redundancy,  furnish  no  more  supports  for 
his  bridge  than  its  stability  requires,  prune  his  tree  so 
severely  that  it  shall  bear  none  but  good  fruit,  forbear  to 
freight  the  memory  of  his  reader  with  a  cargo  so  unwieldy 


INTRODUCTION  ix 

as  to  sink  it.  On  the  other  hand,  of  course,  he  must  be- 
ware of  being  too  terse;  man  cannot  live  by  bread  alone, 
and  the  reader  of  histories  needs  to  be  told  the  "Why  as 
well  as  the  What.  But  the  historical  field  is  so  wide  that 
one  man,  in  his  one  lifetime,  can  hardly  hope  by  independ- 
ent and  original  investigation  both  to  collect  all  the  data 
from  which  to  build  his  structure,  and  so  to  select  his  tim- 
bers that  only  the  indispensable  ones  shall  be  employed. 
In  reality,  we  find  one  historian  of  a  given  subject  or  pe- 
riod succeeding  another,  and  refining  upon  his  methods 
and  treatment.  "With  each  successive  attempt  the  outlook 
becomes  clearer  and  more  comprehensive,  and  the  meaning 
of  the  whole  more  pronounced.  The  spirit,  for  the  sake  of 
which  the  body  exists,  more  and  more  dominates  its  mate- 
rial basis,  until  at  last  the  latter  practically  vanishes  "in 
the  light  of  its  meaning  sublime."  This  is  the  apotheosis 
of  history,  which  of  course  has  not  yet  been  attained,  and 
probably  can  never  be  more  than  approximated. 

The  present  work  is  a  very  modest  contribution  toward 
the  desired  result.  It  makes  few  or  no  pretensions  to  origi- 
nal research.  There  are  many  histories  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  fundamental  facts  thereof  are  known.  But  it  re- 
mains for  the  student  to  endeavor  to  solve  and  declare  the 
meaning  of  the  familiar  events ;  to  state  his  view  of  their 
source  and  their  ultimate  issue.  In  these  volumes,  I  have 
taken  the  view  that  the  American  nation  is  the  embodiment 
and  vehicle  of  a  Divine  purpose  to  emancipate  and  enlighten 
the  human  race.  Man  is  entering  upon  a  new  career  of 
spiritual  freedom:  he  is  to  enjoy  a  hitherto  unprecedented 
condition  of  political,  social  and  moral  liberty — as  distin- 


x  INTRODUCTION 

guished  from  license,  which  in  truth  is  slavery.  The  stage 
for  this  grand  evolution  was  fixed  in  the  Western  Conti- 
nent, and  the  pioneers  who  went  thither  were  inspired  with 
the  desire  to  escape  from  the  thralldom  of  the  past,  and  to 
nourish  their  souls  with  that  pure  and  exquisite  freedom 
which  can  afford  to  ignore  the  ease  of  the  body,  and  all 
temporal  luxuries,  for  the  sake  of  that  elixir  of  immortal- 
ity. This,  according  to  my  thinking,  is  the  innermost  core 
of  the  American  Idea;  if  you  go  deep  enough  into  surface 
manifestations,  you  will  find  it.  It  is  what  differentiates 
Americans  from  all  other  peoples;  it  is  what  makes  Ameri- 
cans out  of  emigrants ;  it  is  what  draws  the  masses  of  Eu- 
rope hither,  and  makes  their  rulers  fear  and  hate  us.  It 
may  often,  and  uniformly,  happen  that  any  given  individ- 
ual is  unconscious  of  the  Spirit  that  moves  within  him; 
for  it  is  the  way  of  that  Spirit  to  subordinate  its  mani- 
festations to  its  ends,  knowing  the  frailty  of  humanity. 
But  it  is  there,  and  its  gradual  and  cumulative  results 
are  seen  in  the  retrospect,  and  it  may  perhaps  be  divined 
as  to  the  outline  of  some  of  its  future  developments. 

Some  sort  of  recognition  of  the  American  Idea,  and  of 
the  American  destiny,  affords  the  only  proper  ground  for 
American  patriotism.  We  talk  of  the  size  of  our  country, 
of  its  wealth  and  prosperity,  of  its  physical  power,  of  its 
enlightenment;  but  if  these  things  be  all  that  we  have  to 
be  proud  of,  we  have  little.  They  are  in  truth  but  out- 
ward signs  of  a  far  more  precious  possession  within.  We 
are  the  pioneers  of  the  new  Day,  or  we  are  nothing  worth 
talking  about.  We  are  at  the  threshold  of  our  career. 
Our  record  thus  far  is  full  of  faults,  and  presents  not  a 
few  deformities,  due  to  our  human  frailties  and  limita- 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

tions;  but  our  general  direction  has  been  onward  and  up- 
ward. At  the  moment  when  this  book  is  finished,  we  seem 
to  be  entering  upon  a  fresh  phase  of  our  journey,  and  a  vast 
horizon  opens  around  us.  It  was  inevitable  that  America 
should  not  be  confined  to  any  special  area  on  the  map  of 
the  world;  it  is  of  little  importance  that  we  fill  our  own 
continent  with  men  and  riches.  We  are  to  teach  men  in 
all  parts  of  the  world  what  freedom  is,  and  thereby  insti- 
tute other  Americas  in  the  very  strongholds  of  oppression. 
In  order  to  accomplish  this,  Americans  will  be  drawn  forth 
and  will  obtain  foothold  in  remote  regions,  there  to  dis- 
seminate their  genius  and  inculcate  their  aims.  In  Europe 
and  Asia  are  wars  and  rumors  of  wars;  but  there  seems 
no  reason  why  the  true  revolution,  which  Americanism  in- 
volves, should  not  be  a  peaceful  and  quiet  one.  Our  real 
enemies  may  be  set  in  high  places,  but  they  are  very  few, 
and  their  power  depends  wholly  on  those  myriads  who  are 
at  heart  our  allies.  If  we  can  assure  the  latter  of  our 
good  faith  and  disinterestedness,  the  battle  is  won  without 
fighting.  Indeed,  the  day  for  Mohammedan  conquests  is 
gone  by,  and  any  such  conquest  would  be  far  worse  than 
futile. 

These  are  theories  and  speculations,  and  so  far  as  they 
enter  into  my  book,  they  do  so  as  atmosphere  and  ami 
only ;  they  are  not  permitted  to  mold  the  character  of  the 
narrative,  so  that  it  may  illustrate  a  foregone  conclusion. 
I  have  related  the  historical  story  as  simply  and  directly 
as  I  could,  making  use  of  the  best  established  authorities. 
Here  and  there  I  have  called  attention  to  what  seemed  to 
me  the  significance  of  events ;  but  any  one  is  at  liberty  to 
interpret  them  otherwise  if  he  will.  After  all  the  best  use 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

of  a  history  is  probably  to  stimulate  readers  to  think  f 
themselves  about  the  events  portrayed;  and  if  I  have  su 
ceeded  in  doing  that,  I  shall  be  satisfied.  The  history 
the  United  States  does  mean  something:  what  is  it?  A 
we  a  decadent  fruit  that  is  rotten  before  it  is  ripe?  or  a 
we  the  bud  of  the  mightiest  tree  of  time?  The  materia 
for  forming  your  judgment  are  here;  form  it  according  j 
your  faith  and  hope  may  dictate. 

JULIAN  HAWTHORNE. 


HAWTHORNE'S 
HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


BEFORE   DAWN 


HEN,  four  centuries  ago,  adventurers  from 
the  Old  "World  first  landed  on  the  southern 
shores  of  the  Western  Continent,  and  pushed 
their  way  into  the  depths  of  the  primeval 
forest,  they  found  growing  in  its  shadowy 
fastnesses  a  mighty  plant,  with  vast  leaves 
radiating  upward  from  the  mould,  and  tipped  with  formi- 
dable thorns.  Its  aspect  was  unfriendly;  it  added  nothing 
to  the  beauty  of  the  wilderness,  and  it  made  advance  more 
difficult.  But  from  the  midst  of  some  of  them  uprose  a 
tall  stem,  rivaling  in  height  the  trees  themselves,  and 
crowned  with  a  glorious  canopy  of  golden  blossoms. 
The  flower  of  the  forbidding  plant  was  the  splendor  of 
the  forest. 

It  was  the  agave,  or  American  Aloe,  sometimes  called 
the  Century  Plant,  because  it  blooms  but  once  in  a  lifetime. 
It  is  of  the  family  of  the  lilies ;  but  no  other  lily  rivals  its 
lofty  magnificence.  From  the  gloom  of  the  untrodden  places 
it  sends  its  shaft  skyward  into  the  sunshine;  it  is  an  ele- 
mental growth :  its  simplicity  equals  its  beauty.  But  until 
the  flower  blooms,  after  its  ages  of  preparation,  the  plant 
seems  to  have  no  meaning,  proportion,  or  comeliness ;  only 
when  those  golden  petals  have  unfolded  upon  the  summit 
of  their  stately  eminence  do  we  comprehend  the  symmetry 

(I) 


2  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

and  significance  that  had  so  long  waited  to  avouch  them- 
selves. 

This  Lily  of  the  Ages,  native  to  American  soil,  may  fit- 
tingly stand  as  the  symbol  of  the  great  Western  Republic 
which,  after  so  many  thousand  years  of  spiritual  vicissitude 
and  political  experiment,  rises  heavenward  out  of  the  wil- 
derness of  time,  and  reveals  its  golden  promise  to  those 
who  have  lost  their  way  in  the  dark  forest  of  error  and 
oppression.  It  was  long  withheld,  but  it  came  at  last,  and 
about  it  center  the  best  hopes  of  mankind.  These  United 
States — this  America  of  ours,  as  we  love  to  call  it — is  unlike 
any  other  nation  that  has  preceded  or  is  contemporary  with 
it.  It  is  the  conscious  incarnation  of  a  sublime  idea — the 
conception  of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  It  is  a  spirit  first, 
and  a  body  afterward ;  thus  following  the  true  law  of  im- 
mortal growth.  It  is  the  visible  consummation  of  human 
history,  and  commands  the  fealty  of  all  noble  minds  in 
every  corner  of  the  earth,  as  well  as  within  its  own  bound- 
aries. There  are  Americans  in  all  countries;  but  America 
is  their  home. 

The  seed  is  hidden  in  the  soil;  the  germ  is  shut  within 
the  darkness  of  the  womb ;  the  preparation  for  all  birth  is 
obscure.  For  more  than  a  century  after  the  discovery  of 
Columbus,  no  one  divined  the  true  significance  and  destiny 
of  the  nation-that-was-to-be.  Years  passed  before  it  was 
understood  even  that  the  coast  of  the  New  World  was  any- 
thing more  than  the  western  boundaries  of  the  Asiatic  con- 
tinent; Columbus  never  wavered  from  this  conviction;  the 
Cabots  fancied  that  our  Atlantic  shores  were  those  of  China; 
and  though  Balboa,  in  1513,  waded  waist-deep  into  the  Pa- 
cific off  Darien,  and  claimed  it  for  Spain,  yet  the  massive 
immensity  of  America  was  not  suspected.  There  was  not 
space  for  it  on  the  globe  as  then  plotted  by  geographers;  it 
must  be  a  string  of  islands,  or  at  best  but  an  attenuated 
outlying  bulwark  of  the  East.  News  spread  slowly  in  those 
days;  Vasco  da  Gama  had  reached  India  round  the  Cape 


BEFORE   DAWN  3 

of  Good  Hope  before  Balboa's  exploit;  Columbus,  on  his 
third  voyage,  had  touched  the  mainland  of  South  America, 
and  young  Sebastian  Cabot,  sailing  from  Bristol  under  the 
English  flag,  had  driven  his  prow  against  Labrador  ice  in 
his  effort  to  force  a  northwest  passage ;  and  still  the  truth 
was  not  fully  realized.  And  when,  a  century  later,  the 
English  colonies  were  assigned  their  boundaries,  these  were 
defined  north,  south  and  east,  but  to  the  west  they  extended 
without  limit.  Panama  was  but  thirty  miles  across,  and 
no  one  imagined  that  three  thousand  miles  of  solid  land 
stretched  between  the  Chesapeake  and  the  Bay  of  San 
Francisco.  Then,  as  now,  orthodoxy  fought  against  the 
heresy  that  there  could  be  anything  that  was  not  as  nar- 
row as  itself. 

And  this  physical  denial  or  belittlement  of  the  American 
continent  had  its  mental  complement  in  the  failure  to  com- 
prehend the  destiny  of  tho  people  which  was  to  inhabit  it. 
Spain  thought  only  of  material  and  theological  aggrandize- 
ment :  of  getting  gold,  and  converting  heathen,  to  her  own 
temporal  and  spiritual  glory ;  and  she  was  as  ready  to  shed 
innocent  blood  in  the  latter  cause  as  in  the  former.  Eng- 
land, without  her  rival's  religious  bigotry,  was  as  intent 
upon  winning  wealth  through  territorial  and  commercial 
usurpations.  Though  not  a  few  of  the  actual  discoverers 
and  explorers  were  generous,  magnanimous  and  kindly  men, 
having  in  view  an  honorable  renown,  based  on  opening  new 
fields  of  life  and  prosperity  to  future  ages,  yet  the  monarchs 
and  the  trading  Companies  that  stood  behind  them  exhibited 
an  unvarying  selfishness  and  greed.  The  new  world  was 
to  them  a  field  for  plunder  only.  Each  aimed  to  own  it 
all,  and  to  monopolize  its  produce.  The  priestly  mission- 
aries of  the  Roman  Catholic  .faith  did  indeed  pursue  their 
ends  with  a  self-sacrifice  and  courage  which  deserve  all 
praise;  they  devoted  themselves  at  the  risk  and  often  at 
the  cost  of  their  lives  to  the  enterprise  of  winning  souls,  as 
they  believed,  to  Christ.  But  the  Church  dignitaries  who 


4  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES 

sent  forth  these  soldiers  of  religion  sought  through  them 
only  to  increase  the  credit  of  their  organization;  they  con- 
templated but  the  enlargement  of  their  power.  The  thought 
of  establishing  in  the  wilderness  a  place  where  men  might 
rule  themselves  in  freedom  entered  not  into  their  calcula- 
tions. The  spirit  of  the  old  order  survived  the  birth  of  the 
spirit  of  the  new. 

But  the  conflict  thus  provoked  was  necessary  to  the  evo- 
lution which  Providence  was  preparing.  The  soul  grows 
strong  through  hardship;  truth  conquers  by  struggling 
against  opposition.  It  is  by  resistance,  at  first  instinctive, 
against  restraint  that  the  infant  attains  self-consciousness. 
The  first  settlers  who  came  across  the  ocean  were  animated 
solely  by  the  desire  to  escape  from  oppression  in  their  native 
land ;  they  had  as  yet  no  purpose  to  set  up  an  independent 
empire.  But,  as  the  breath  of  the  forest  and  the  prairie 
entered  into  their  lungs,  and  the  untrammeled  spaciousness 
of  the  virgin  continent  unshackled  their  minds,  they  began 
to  resent,  though  at  first  timidly,  the  arrogant  pretension 
to  rule  them  across  the  waves.  Their  environment  gave 
them  courage,  made  them  hardy  and  self-dependent,  enlight- 
ened their  intelligence,  weaned  them  from  vain  traditions, 
revealed  to  them  the  truth  that  man's  birthright  is  liberty. 
And  gradually,  as  the  reins  of  tyranny  were  drawn  tighter, 
these  pioneers  of  the  New  Day  were  wrought  up  to  the  pitch 
of  throwing  off  all  allegiance,  and  setting  their  lives  upon 
the  cast.  The  idea  of  political  freedom  is  commonplace  now ; 
but  to  conceive  it  for  the  first  time  required  a  mighty  effort, 
and  it  could  have  been  accomplished  nowhere  else  than  in 
a  vast  and  untrodden  land.  The  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, nearly  three  centuries  after  Columbus's  discovery  of 
America,  showed  the  hitherto- blind  and  sordid  world  what 
America  was  discovered  for.  Individual  men  of  genius  had 
surmised  it  many  years  before ;  but  their  hope  or  forecast 
had  been  deemed  but  an  idle  vision  until  in  a  moment,  as 
it  were,  the  reality  was  born. 


BEFORE   DAWN  5 

It  was  essential,  however,  to  the  final  success  of  the 
great  revolt,  that  the  men  who  brought  it  to  pass  should 
be  the  best  of  a  chosen  race.  And  this  requisite  also  was 
secured  by  conflict.  It  was  the  inveterate  persuasion  of 
many  generations  that  America  was  the  land  of  gold. 
Tales  told  by  the  Indians  stimulated  the  imagination  and 
the  cupidity  of  the  first  adventurers ;  legends  of  El  Dorado 
kindled  the  horizons  that  fled  before  them  as  they  advanced. 
Somewhere  beyond  those  savage  mountains,  amid  these 
pathless  forests,  was  a  noble  city  built  and  paved  with 
gold.  Somewhere  flowed  a  stately  river  whose  waters 
swept  between  golden  margins,  over  sands  of  gold.  In 
some  remote  region  dwelt  a  barbarian  monarch  to  whom 
gold  and  precious  stones  were  as  the  dross  of  the  wayside. 
These  stories  were  the  offspring  of  the  legends  of  the  al- 
chemists of  the  Dark  Ages,  who  had  professed  to  make 
gold  in  their  crucibles ;  it  was  as  good  to  pick  up  gold  in 
armf uls  on  the  earth  as  to  manufacture  it  in  the  laboratory. 
The  actual  discovery  of  treasure  in  Mexico  and  Peru  only 
whetted  the  inexhaustible  appetite  of  the  adventurers;  they 
toiled  through  swamps,  they  cut  their  way  through  woods, 
they  scaled  precipices,  they  fought  savages,  they  starved 
and  died ;  and  their  eyes,  glazing  in  death,  still  sought  the 
gleam  of  the  precious  metal.  Worse  than  death,  to  them, 
would  have  been  the  revelation  that  their  belief  was  base- 
less. The  thirst  for  wealth  is  not  accounted  noble ;  yet  there 
seems  to  have  been  something  not  ignoble  hi  this  romantic 
quest  for  illimitable  gold.  There  is  a  magic  in  the  mere 
idea  of  the  yellow  metal,  apart  from  such  practical  or  luxu- 
rious uses  as  it  may  subserve ;  it  stood  for  power  and  splen- 
dor— whatever  good  the  men  of  that  age  were  prone  to  ap- 
preciate. Howbeit,  the  strongest  and  bravest  of  all  lands 
were  drawn  together  in  the  search ;  and  inevitably  they  met 
and  clashed.  Foremost  among  the  antagonists  were  Spain 
and  England.  The  ambition  of  Spain  was  measureless ;  she 
desired  not  only  the  mastery  of  America  and  its  riches,  but 


6  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  empire  of  the  world,  the  leadership  in  commerce,  and 
the  ownership  of  the  very  gates  of  Heaven.  England  sought 
land  and  trade ;  she  was  practical  and  unromantic,  but  strong 
and  daring;  and  in  her  people,  unlike  the  Spanish,  were  im- 
planted the  seeds  of  human  freedom.  She  had  not  as  yet 
the  prestige  of  Spain;  but  men  like  Francis  Drake  and  Sir 
Walter  Kaleigh  went  far  to  win  it ;  moreover,  the  star  of 
Spam  had  already  begun  to  wane,  while  that  of  England 
was  waxing.  Whenever,  therefore,  the  strength  of  the  two 
rivals  was  fairly  pitted,  England  had  the  better  of  the  en- 
counter. Spain  might  dominate,  for  a  while,  the  southern 
regions  of  the  continent ;  and  her  priests  might  thread  the 
western  wildernesses,  and  build  white- walled  missions  there ; 
but  to  England  should  belong  the  Atlantic  coast  from  Labra- 
dor to  Florida :  the  most  readily  accessible  from  Europe,  and 
the  best  adapted  to  bring  forth  that  wealth  for  which  gold 
must  be  given  in  exchange.  The  struggle,  as  between  the 
Spanish  and  the  English,  was  temporarily  suspended,  and 
it  was  with  France  that  the  latter  now  found  themselves 
confronted.  The  French  had  entered  America  by  way  of 
the  St.  Lawrence,  and  down  the  Mississippi,  in  expectation, 
like  the  others,  of  finding  a  passage  through  to  India;  they 
had  planted  colonies  and  conciliated  the  Indians,  and  were 
destined  to  give  England  much  more  trouble  than  her  for- 
mer foe  had  done.  They,  like  the  English,  wished  to  live 
in  the  new  world;  Spain's  chief  desire  was  to  plunder  it  and 
take  the  booty  home  with  her.  In  the  sequel,  England  was 
victorious;  and  thus  approved  her  right  to  be  the  nucleus 
of  the  Race  of  the  Future.  Finally,  it  was  to  be  her  fate 
to  fight  that  Race  itself,  and  to  be  defeated  by  it;  and 
thus,  as  the  chosen  from  the  chosen,  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Thirteen  Colonies  were  to  begin  their  career. 

The  birth  of  America  must  therefore  be  dated,  not  from 
the  discovery  of  the  land,  but  from  the  culmination  in  revolt 
of  the  English  Colonies.  All  that  preceded  this  was  as  the 
early  and  ambiguous  processes  of  nature  in  bringing  forth 


BEFORE   DAWN  7 

the  plant  from  the  seed.  Nature  knows  her  work,  and  its 
result;  but  the  onlooker  sees  the  result  only.  The  Creator 
of  man  knew  of  what  a  child  America  was  to  be  the  mother ; 
but  the  world,  intent  upon  its  selfish  concerns,  recognized  it 
only  when  the  consummation  had  been  reached.  And  even 
now  she  eyes  us  askance,  and  mutters  doubts  as  to  our  en- 
durance and  OUT  legitimacy.  But  America  is  Europe's  best 
and  only  friend,  and  her  political  pattern  must  sooner  or 
later,  and  more  or  less  exactly,  be  followed  by  all  peoples. 
Democracy,  however  unwelcome  in  its  first  and  outward  as- 
pect it  may  appear,  is  the  logical  issue  of  human  experiments 
in  government ;  it  is  susceptible  of  much  abuse  and  open  to 
many  corruptions ;  but  these  cannot  penetrate  far  below  the 
surface ;  they  are  external  and  obvious,  not  vital  and  secret ; 
because  at  heart  the  voice  of  democracy  is  the  voice  of  God. 
It  may  be  silent  for  long,  so  that  some  will  disbelieve  or 
despair,  and  say  in  their  haste  that  democracy  is  a  fraud 
or  a  failure.  But  at  last  its  tones  will  be  heard,  and  its 
word  will  be  irresistible  and  immortal:  the  word  of  the 
Lord,  uttering  itself  through  the  mouth  of  His  creatures. 

The  preliminary  episodes  and  skirmishings,  therefore, 
which  went  before  the  spiritual  self -consciousness  of  Amer- 
ica, will  be  treated  here  in  outline  only ;  only  such  events 
and  persons  as  were  the  sources  of  subsequent  important 
conditions  will  be  drawn  in  light  and  shadow.  This  period 
of  adventure  and  exploration  is,  it  is  true,  rich  in  picturesque 
characters  and  romantic  incident,  but  they  have  little  or- 
ganic relation  to  the  history  of  the  true  America — which  is 
the  tracing  of  the  development  and  embodiment  of  an  ab- 
stract idea.  They  belong  to  Europe,  whose  life  was  present 
in  them,  though  the  men  acted  and  the-  incidents  occurred 
in  a  strange  environment.  They  are  attractive  subjects  of 
study  in  themselves,  but  have  small  pertinence  to  the  pres- 
ent argument.  Our  aim  will  be  to  maintain  an  organic 
coherency. 

Still  less  can  we  linger  in  that  impressive  darkness  before 


8  HISTORY    OF    THE    UNITED   STATES 

dawn  which  prevailed  upon  the  continent  before  the  advent 
of  Columbus.  The  mystery  which  shrouds  the  origin  and 
annals  of  the  races  which  inhabited  America  previous  to 
the  European  invasion  has  been  assiduously  investigated, 
but  never  dispelled.  At  first  it  was  taken  for  granted  that 
the  "Indians,"  as  the  red  men  were  ignorantly  called,  were 
the  aboriginal  denizens  of  the  country.  But  the  mounds, 
ruined  cities,  pottery  and  other  remains  since  found  in  all 
parts  of  the  land,  concerning  which  the  Indians  could  fur- 
nish no  information,  and  which  showed  a  state  of  civilization 
far  in  advance  of  theirs,  were  proof  that  a  great  people  had 
existed  here  in  the  remote  past,  who  had  flourished  and  dis- 
appeared without  leaving  any  trace  whereby  they  could  be 
accounted  for  or  identified.  They  are  an  enigma  compared 
with  which  the  archaeological  problems  of  the  Old  World 
are  an  open  book.  We  can  form  no  conception  of  the  con- 
ditions under  which  they  lived,  of  their  personal  character- 
istics, of  their  language,  habits,  or  religion.  We  cannot 
determine  whether  these  forerunners  of  the  Indians  were 
one  people  in  several  stages  of  development,  or  several  peo- 
ples in  simultaneous  occupation  of  the  land.  We  can  estab- 
lish no  trustworthy  connection  between  them  and  any  Asi- 
atic races,  and  yet  we  are  reluctant  to  believe  them  isolated 
from  the  rest  of  mankind.  If  they  had  dwelt  here  from 
their  creation,  why  had  they  not  progressed  further  in  civil- 
ization?— and  if  they  emigrated  hither  from  another  conti- 
nent, why  do  their  remains  not  indicate  their  source?  By 
what  agency  did  they  perish,  and  when?  The  more  keenly 
we  strive  to  penetrate  their  mystery,  the  more  perplexing 
does  it  appear ;  the  further  we  investigate  them,  the  more 
alien  from  anything  we  are  or  have  known  do  they  seem. 
Elusive  as  mist,  and  questionable  as  night,  they  form  a 
suggestive  background  on  which  the  vivid  and  energetic 
drama  of.  our  novel  civilization  stands  out  in  sharp  relief. 
Scarcely  less  mysterious— though  living  among  us  still 
—are  the  red  men  whom  we  found  here.  They  had  no 


BEFORE   DAWN  9 

written  languages  or  history;  their  knowledge  of  their  own 
past  was  confined  to  vague  and  fanciful  traditions.  They 
were  few  in  numbers,  barbarous  in  condition,  untamable  in 
nature ;  they  built  no  cities  and  practiced  no  industries :  their 
women  planted  maize  and  performed  all  menial  labors ;  their 
men  hunted  and  fought.  Before  we  came,  they  fought  one 
another ;  our  coming  did  not  unite  them  against  a  common 
enemy;  it  only  gave  each  of  them  one  enemy  the  more. 
After  an  intercourse  of  four  hundred  years,  we  know  as 
little  of  them  as  we  did  at  first;  we  have  neither  educated, 
absorbed  nor  exterminated  them.  The  fashion  of  their  faces, 
and  some  other  indications,  seem  to  point  to  a  northern- Asi- 
atic ancestry ;  but  they  cannot  tell  us  even  so  much  as  we 
can  guess.  There  have  been  among  them,  now  and  again, 
men  of  commanding  abilities  in  war  and  negotiation ;  but 
their  influence  upon  their  people  has  not  lasted  beyond  their 
own  lives.  Amid  the  roar  and  fever  of  these  latter  ages, 
they  stand  silent,  useless,  and  apathetic.  They  belong  to 
our  history  only  in  so  far  as  their  savage  and  treacherous 
hostility  contributed  to  harden  the  fortitude  of  our  earlier 
settlers,  and  to  weld  them  into  a  united  people. 

Posterity  may  resolve  these  obscurities ;  meanwhile  they 
remain  in  picturesque  contrast  to  the  merciless  publicity  of 
our  own  life,  and  the  scientific  annihilation  of  .time  and  dis- 
tance. They  are  as  the  dark  and  amorphous  loam  in  which 
has  taken  root  the  Flower  of  the  Ages.  If  extremes  must 
meet,  it  was  fitting  that  the  least  and  the  most  highly  de- 
veloped examples  of  mankind  should  dwell  side  by  side,  at 
the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century,  in  a  land  to  which 
neither  is  native:  that  Europe,  the  child  of  Asia,  should 
meet  its  prehistoric  parent  here,  and  work  out  its  destiny 
before  her  uncomprehending  eyes.  The  world  is  an  inn  of 
strange  meetings ;  and  this  encounter  is  perhaps  the  strangest 
of  aU. 

The  most  dangerous  enemy  of  America  has  been — not 
Spain,  France,  England,  or  any  other  nation  in  arms,  but 


io  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

— our  own  material  prosperity.  The  lessons  of  adversity 
we  took  to  heart,  and  they  brought  forth  wholesome  fruit, 
purifying  our  blood  and  toughening  our  muscles.  So  long 
as  the  Spirit  of  Liberty  was  threatened  from  without,  she 
was  safe  and  triumphant.  But  when  her  foes  abroad  had 
ceased  to  harry  her,  a  foe  far  more  insidious  began  to  plot 
against  her  in  her  own  house.  The  tireless  energy  and  in- 
genuity which  are  our  most  salient  characteristics,  and  which 
had  rendered  us  formidable  and  successful  on  sea  and  land, 
were  turned  by  peace  into  productive  channels.  The  enor- 
mous natural  resources  of  the  continent  began  to  receive 
development;  men  who  under  former  conditions  would  have 
been  admirals  and  generals,  now  became  leaders  in  com- 
merce, manufactures  and  finance ;  they  made  great  fortunes, 
and  set  up  standards  of  emulation  other  than  patriotism  and 
public  spirit.  Like  the  old  Spanish  and  English  advent- 
urers, they  sought  for  gold,  and  held  all  other  things  sec- 
ondary to  that.  An  anomalous  oligarchy  sprang  into  ex- 
istence, holding  no  ostensible  political  or  social  sway,  yet 
influential  in  both  directions  by  virtue  of  the  power  of 
money.  Money  can  be  possessed  by  the  evil  as  well  as  by 
the  good,  and  it  can  be  used  to  tempt  the  good  to  condone 
evil.  The  exalted  maxim  of  human  equality  was  inter- 
preted to  meaji  that  all  Americans  could  be  rich;  and  the 
spectacle  was  presented  of  a  mighty  and  generous  nation 
fighting  one  another  for  mere  material  wealth.  Inevitably, 
the  lower  and  baser  elements  of  the  population  came  to  the 
surface  and  seemed  to  rule;  the  ordinary  citizen,  on  whom 
the  welfare  of  the  State  depends,  allowed  his  private  busi- 
ness interest  to  wean  him  from  the  conduct  of  public  affairs, 
which  thereby  fell  into  the  hands  of  professional  politicians, 
who  handled  them  for  their  personal  gain  instead  of  for  the 
commonweal.  We  forgot  that  pregnant  saying,  "Eternal 
vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty,"  and  suffered  ourselves  to 
be  persuaded  that  because  our  written  Constitution  was  a 
wise  and  patriotic  document,  we  were  forever  safe  even 


BEFORE   DAWN  n 

from  the  effects  of  our  own  selfishness  and  infidelity.  As 
some  men  are  more  skillful  and  persistent  manipulators  of 
money  than  others,  it  happened  that  the  capital  of  the  coun- 
try became  massed  hi  one  place  and  was  lacking  hi  another; 
the  numbers  of  the  poor,  and  of  paupers,  increased ;  and  the 
rich  were  able  to  control  their  political  action  and  sap  their 
self-respect  by  dominating  the  employment  market.  "Do 
my  bidding,  or  starve,"  is  a  cogent  argument;  it  should 
never  be  in  the  power  of  any  man  to  offer  it;  but  it  was 
heard  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  free  America.  The 
efforts  of  laboring  men,  by  organization,  to  check  the  power 
of  capitalists,  was  met  by  the  latter  with  organizations  of 
their  own,  which,  in  the  form  of  vast  "trusts"  and  other- 
wise, deprived  small  manufacturers  and  traders  of  the  power 
of  independent  self-support.  Strikes  and  lockouts  were  the 
natural  outcome  of  such  a  situation ;  and  the  sinister  pros- 
pect loomed  upon  us  of  labor  and  capital  arrayed  against 
each  other  in  avowed  hostility. 

Danger  from  this  cause,  however,  is  more  apparent  than 
actual.  The  remedy,  in  the  last  resort,  is  always  hi  our- 
selves. Laws  as  to  land  and  contracts  may  be  modified, 
but  the  true  cure  for  all  such  injuries  and  inequalities  is  to 
cease  to  regard  the  amassing  of  "fortunes"  as  the  most  de- 
sirable end  in  life.  The  land  is  capable  of  supporting  in 
comfort  far  more  than  its  present  population ;  ignorance  or 
selfish  disregard  of  the  true  principles  of  economy  have  made 
it  seem  otherwise.  The  proper  state  of  every  man  is  that 
of  a  producer;  the  craving  of  individuals  to  own  what  they 
have  not  fairly  earned  and  cannot  usefully  administer,  is 
vain  and  disorderly.  Men  will  always  be  born  who  have 
the  genius  of  management ;  and  others  who  require  to  have 
their  energies  directed ;  some  can  profitably  control  resources 
which  to  others  would  be  a  mischievous  burden.  But  this 
truth  does  not  involve  any  extravagant  discrepancy  hi  the 
private  means  and  establishments  of  one  or  the  other ;  each 
should  have  as  much  as  his  needs,  intelligence  and  taste 


12  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

legitimately  warrant,  and  no  more.  Such  matters  will  grad- 
ually adjust  themselves,  once  the  broad  underlying  principle 
has  been  accepted.  Meanwhile  we  may  remember  that  na- 
tional health  is  not  always  synonymous  with  peace.  It  was 
the  warning  of  our  Lord — "I  am  not  come  to  bring  peace, 
but  a  sword."  The  war  which  is  waged  with  powder  and 
ball  is  often  less  contrary  to  true  peace  than  the  war  which 
exists  while  all  the  outward  semblances  of  peace  are  main- 
tained. We  must  not  be  misled  by  names.  America  is 
perhaps  too  prone  to  regard  herself  in  a  passive  light,  as 
the  refuge  merely  of  the  oppressed  and  needy;  but  she  has 
an  active  mission  too.  She  stands  for  so  much  that  is  con- 
trary to  the  ideas  that  have  hitherto  ruled  the  world  that 
she  can  hardly  hope  to  avoid  the  hostility,  and  possibly  the 
attacks,  of  the  representatives  of  the  old  order.  These,  she 
must  be  able  and  ready  to  repel.  We  have  freely  shed  our 
blood  for  our  own  freedom ;  and  we  should  not  forget  that, 
though  charity  begins  at  home,  it  need  not  end  there.  We 
should  not  interpret  too  strictly  the  maxims  which  admonish 
us  to  mind  our  own  housekeeping,  and  to  avoid  entangle, 
ments  with  the  quarrels  or  troubles  of  our  neighbors.  We 
should  not  say  to  the  tide  of  our  liberties,  Thus  far  shalt 
thou  go,  and  no  further.  America  is  not  a  geographical 
expression,  and  arbitrary  geographical  boundaries  should 
not  be  permitted  to  limit  the  area  which  her  principles  con- 
trol. We,  who  seek  to  bind  the  other  nations  to  ourselves 
by  ties  of  commerce,  should  recognize  the  obligations  of 
other  ties,  whose  value  cannot  be  expressed  in  money. 

America  wears  her  faults  upon  her  forehead,  not  in  her 
heart;  her  history  is  just  beginning;  she  herself  dreams  not 
yet  what  her  ultimate  destiny  will  be.  But  so  far  as  her 
brief  past  may  serve  as  a  key  wherewith  to  open  the  future, 
a  study  of  it  will  not  be  idle. 


CHAPTER    FIRST 

COLUMBUS,  RALEIGH  AND   SMITH 

HE  records  will  have  it  that  America  was  dis- 
covered in  consequence  of  the  desire  of  Europe 
to  profit  by  the  commerce  of  Cathay,  which 
had  hitherto  reached  them  only  by  the  long  and 
expensive  process  of  a  journey  due  west.  One 
caravan  had  passed  on  the  spices  and  other 
valuables  to  another,  until  they  reached  the  Mediterranean. 
It  was  asked  whether  the  trip  could  not  be  more  quickly 
and  cheaply  made  by  sea.  Assuming,  as  was  generally 
done,  that  the  earth  was  flat,  why  might  not  a  man  sail 
round  the  southern  extremity  of  Africa,  and  up  the  other 
side  to  the  Orient?  It  was  true  that  the  extremity  of  Africa 
might  extend  to  the  Southern  ice,  in  which  case  this  plan . 
would  not  serve ;  but  the  attempt  might  be  worth  making. 
This  was  the  view  of  Henry  of  Portugal,  a  scientific  and 
ingenious  prince,  whose  life  covered  the  first  sixty  years  of 
the  Fifteenth  Century.  And  Portuguese  mariners  did  ac- 
cordingly sail  their  little  ships  far  down  the  Atlantic  coast 
of  the  Dark  Continent ;  but  they  did  not  venture  quite  far 
enough  until  long  after  good  Prince  Henry  was  dead,  and 
Columbus  had  (in  his  own  belief)  pioneered  a  shorter  way. 

Columbus  was  a  theorist  and  a  visionary.  Many  men 
who  have  been  able  to  show  much  more  plausible  grounds 
for  their  theories  than  he  could  for  his  have  died  the  laugh- 
ing-stock of  the  world.  Columbus  was  a  laughing-stock  for 
nearly  twenty  years ;  but  though  the  special  application  of 
his  theory  was  absurdly  wrong,  yet  in  principle  it  chanced 

(13) 


I4  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

to  be  right;  and  he  was  so  fortunate  as  to  be  empowered  to 
bring  it  to  a  practical  demonstration.  His  notion  was  that 
the  earth  was  not  flat,  but  round.  Therefore  the  quickest 
route  to  the  extreme  East  must  be  in  exactly  the  opposite 
direction;  the  globe,  he  estimated,  could  not  be  much  over 
fifteen  thousand  miles  in  girth ;  Cathay,  by  the  land  route, 
was  twelve  thousand  miles  or  so  east  of  Europe;  conse- 
quently the  distance  west  could  not  be  more  than  three 
thousand.  This  could  be  sailed  over  in  a  month  or  two, 
and  the  saving  in  time  and  trouble  would  be  immense. — 
Thus  did  he  argue — shoving  the  Atlantic  into  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  subtracting  six  or  seven  thousand  miles  from  their 
united  breadth,  and  obliterating  entirely  that  western  con- 
tinent which  he  was  fated  to  discover,  though  he  was 
never  to  suspect  its  existence. 

The  heresy  that  the  earth  was  a  sphere  had  long  been 
in  existence;  Aristotle  being  the  earliest  source  to  which  it 
could  be  traced.  Sensible  people  did  not  countenance  it  then, 
any  more  than  they  accept  to-day  the  conjecture  that  other 
planets  than  this  may  be  inhabited.  They  demonstrated  its 
improbability  on  historical  and  religious  grounds,  and  also 
made  the  point  that,  supposing  it  were  round,  and  that 
Columbus  were  to  sail  down  the  under  side  of  it,  he  would 
never  be  able  to  climb  back  again.  But  the  Genoese  was  a 
man  who  became  more  firmly  wedded  to  his  opinion  in  pro- 
portion as  it  met  with  ridicule  and  opposition ;  proofs  he  had 
none  of  the  truth  of  his  pet  idea ;  but  he  clung  to  it  with  a 
doggedness  which  must  greatly  have  exasperated  his  inter- 
locutors. By  dint  of  sheer  persistence,  he  almost  persuaded 
some  men  that  there  might  be  something  in  his  project;  but 
he  never  brought  any  of  them  to  the  pitch  of  risking  money 
on  it.  It  was  only  upon  a  woman  that  he  was  finally  able 
to  prevail;  and  doubtless  the  intelligence  of  Isabella  of 
Castile  was  less  concerned  in  the  affair  than  was  her  femi- 
nine imagination.  Had  she  known  more,  she  would  have 
done  less.  But  so,  for  that  matter,  would  Columbus. 


COLUMBUS,  RALEIGH   AND   SMITH  15 

Almost  as  little  is  known  of  the  personal  character  of  this 
man  as  of  Shakespeare's ;  and  the  portraits  of  him,  though 
much  more  numerous  than  those  of  the  poet,  are  even  less 
compatible  with  one  another.  The  estimates  and  conject- 
ures of  historians  also  differ;  some  describe  a  pious  hero 
and  martyr,  others  a  dissolute  adventurer  and  charlatan. 
We  are  constrained,  in  the  end,  to  construct  his  effigy  from 
our  own  best  interpretation  of  the  things  he  did.  Some 
little  learning  he  had ;  just  enough,  probably,  to  disturb  the 
balance  of  his  judgment.  He  could  read  Latin  and  make 
maps,  and  he  had  ample  experience  of  practical  navigation. 
His  life  as  a  mariner  got  him  the  habit  of  meditation,  and 
this  favored  the  espousal  of  theories,  which,  upon  occasion, 
he  could  expound  with  volubility  or  defend  with  passion,  as 
his  Italian  temperament  prompted.  His  imagination  was 
portentous,  and  the  Fifteenth  Century  was  hospitable  to  this 
faculty ;  there  was  nothing — except  plain  but  unknown  facts 
— too  marvelous  to  be  believed;  and  that  Columbus  was 
even  more  credulous  than  his  contemporaries  is  proved  by 
the  evidence  that  even  facts  were  not  exempt  from  his  enter- 
tainment. An  ordinary  appetite  for  the  marvelous  could 
swallow  stories  of  chimeras  dire,  and  men  whose  heads  do 
grow  beneath  their  shoulders ;  but  nothing  short  of  the  prof- 
ligate capacity  of  a  Columbus  could  digest  such  a  proposition 
as  that  the  earth  was  round  and  could  be  circumnavigated. 
The  type  of  half -educated  fanatics  to  which  he  belonged  has 
always  been  common;  there  is  nothing  exceptional  or  re- 
markable in  this  fanatic  except  the  fortune  which  finally 
attended  his  lifelong  devotion  to  the  most  improbable  hy- 
pothesis of  his  time.  It  has  been  our  custom  to  eulogize 
his  courage  and  his  constancy  to  the  truth ;  but  if  he  had 
adopted  perpetual  motion,  instead  of  the  rotundity  of  the 
earth,  as  his  dogma,  he  would  have  deserved  our  praises 
just  as  much.  His  sole  claim  to  our  admiration  is,  that  in 
the  teeth  of  all  precedent  and  likelihood,  he  succeeded  by 
one  mistake  in  making  another:  because  he  fancied  that 


16  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

by  sailing  west  he  could  find  the  Indies,  he  blundered  upon 
a  land  whose  identity  he  never  discovered.  Doubtless  his 
blunder  was  of  unspeakable  value ;  but  a  blunder  not  the 
less  it  was ;  while  as  to  his  courage  and  perseverance,  as 
much  has  been  shown  by  a  thousand  other  scientific  and 
philosophical  heretics,  whose  names  have  not  survived, 
because  the  thing  they  imagined  turned  out  an  error. 

From  another  point  of  view,  however,  Columbus  is 
specially  a  creature  of  his  age.  It  was  an  age  which  felt, 
it  knew  not  why,  that  something  new  must  come  to  pass. 
The  resources  of  Europe  were  exhausted;  men  had  reached 
the  end  of  their  tether,  and  demanded  admittance  to  some 
wider  pasturage.  It  was  much  such  a  predicament  as  ob- 
tains now,  four  hundred  years  later;  we  feel  that  changes- 
enlargements— are  due,  but  know  not  what  or  whence.  The 
conception  of  a  voyage  across  the  Atlantic,  in  that  age, 
seemed  as  captivating,  and  almost  as  fantastic,  as  a  trip  to 
the  Moon  or  Mars  would,  to  an  adventurer  of  our  time. 
Given  the  vehicle,  no  doubt  many  volunteers  would  offer 
for  the  journey;  Columbus  could  get  a  ship,  but  the 
chances  of  his  arriving  at  his  proposed  destination  must 
have  appeared  as  problematical  to  him  as  the  Moon  enter- 
prise in  a  balloon  would  to  a  world-weary  globe-trotter  of 
to-day.  It  was  not  merely  that  the  ship  was  small  and  the 
Atlantic  large  and  stormy;  there  were  legends  of  vast 
whirlpools,  of  abysmal  oceanic  cataracts,  of  sea-monsters, 
malignant  genii,  and  other  portents  not  less  terrifying  and 
fatal.  Columbus  would  not  have  been  surprised  at  falling 
in  with  any  of  these  things ;  but  the  physical  courage  which 
must  have  been  his  most  prominent  trait,  added  to  incorrigi- 
ble pride  of  opinion,  brought  him  through. 

But  the  significant  feature  of  his  achievement  is,  not  that 
he  sailed  or  that  he  arrived,  but  that  he  was  impelled,  irre- 
sistibly as  it  were,  to  make  the  attempt.  He  made  it,  be- 
cause it  was  the  one  thing  left  in  the  world  that  seemed 
worth  doing ;  it  was  the  only  apparent  way  of  escape  from 


COLUMBUS,  RALEIGH   AND   SMITH  17 

the  despair  of  the  familiar  and  habitual;  it  was  an  advent- 
ure charged  with  all  unknown  possibilities;  once  conceived, 
it  must  be  executed  at  whatever  cost.  Columbus  was  fasci- 
nated; the  unknown  drew  him  like  a  magnet;  he  was  the 
involuntary  deputy  of  his  period  to  incarnate  its  yearnings 
in  act.  The  hour  had  struck;  and  with  it,  as  always,  ap- 
peared the  man.  So  it  has  ever  been  in  the  history  of  the 
world ;  though  we,  with  characteristic  vanity,  uniformly  put 
the  cart  before  the  horse,  and  declare  that  it  is  the  man  that 
brings  the  hour. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  Columbus  was  fitted  out  with  three 
boats  by  the  Spanish  king  and  queen,  set  sail  from  Spain  on 
the  3d  of  August,  1492,  and  arrived  at  one  of  the  Caribbean 
islands  on  the  12th  of  October  of  the  same  year.  He  sup- 
posed that  he  had  found  an  East  Indian  archipelago;  and 
with  the  easy  emotional  piety  of  his  time  and  temperament, 
he  fell  on  his  knees  and  thanked  God,  and  took  possession  of 
everything  in  sight  in  the  name  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 

The  deed  had  been  done,  and  Columbus  had  his  reward. 
It  would  have  been  well  for  him  had  he  recognized  this  fact, 
and  not  tried  to  get  more.  He  had  found  land  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Atlantic ;  what  no  other  man  had  believed  pos- 
sible, he  had  accomplished;  he  had  carried  his  point,  and 
proved  his  thesis — or  one  so  much  resembling  it  that  he 
never  knew  the  difference.  This,  and  not  a  more  sordid 
hope,  had  been  the  real  motive  power  of  his  career  up  to 
this  time;  and  the  moment  when  the  light  from  another 
world  gleamed  across  the  water  to  his  hungry  eyes  had  been 
the  happiest  that  he  had  ever  known,  or  would  know.  A 
mighty  hope  had  been  fulfilled;  the  longing  of  an  age  had 
been  gratified  in  his  triumph ;  a  fresh  chapter  in  the  world's 
history  had  been  begun.  The  thoughts  and  emotions  that 
surged  through  the  ardent  Italian,  as  he  knelt  on  that  coral 
beach,  were  lofty  and  unselfish :  as  were,  in  truth,  those  of 
the  age  whose  representative  he  was,  when  it  saw  him  de- 
part on  his  adventure.  But  before  the  man  of  destiny  had 


18  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES 

risen  from  his  knees,  he  had  ceased  to  act  as  the  instrument 
of  God,  and  had  begun  to  think  of  personal  emoluments. 
So  much  he  must  make  over  to  Spain;  so  much  he  might 
keep  for  himself;  so  much  was  promised  to  his  shipmates. 
He  would  be  famous — yes :  and  rich  and  powerful  too ;  he 
would  be  a  great  vicegerent ;  his  attire  should  be  of  silk  and 
velvet,  with  a  gold  chain  about  his  neck,  and  gems  on  his 
hands.  So  adversity  set  his  name  among  the  stars,  and 
prosperity  abased  his  soul  to  dust.  The  remaining  years  of 
his  life  were  a  fruitless  struggle  to  secure  what  he  deemed 
his  rightful  wages — to  coin  his  immortal  exploit  into  ducats ; 
and  his  end  was  sorrowful  and  dishonored.  The  proud  self- 
abnegation  of  the  ancient  Roman  was  lacking  in  the  me- 
dieval Genoese. 

The  white-maned  horses  of  the  Atlantic  once  mastered, 
there  came  riders  enough.  During  the  next  thirty  years 
such  men  as  Amerigo  Vespucci  (who  enjoyed  the  not  singu- 
lar distinction  of  having  his  name  associated  with  the  dis- 
covery of  another  man),  the  Cabots,  father  and  son;  Balboa, 
and  Magellan,  crossed  the  sea  and  visited  the  new  domain. 
Magellan  performed  the  only  unprecedented  feat  left  for 
mariners  by  sailing  round  the  earth  by  way  of  the  South 
American  straits  that  bear  his  name;  but  Vasco  da  Gama 
had  already  entered  the  Pacific  by  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 
It  was  by  this  time  beginning  to  be  understood  that  the  new 
land  was  really  new,  and  not  the  other  side  of  the  old  one ; 
but  this  only  prompted  the  adventurers  to  get  past  or 
through  it  to  the  first  goal  of  their  ambition.  They  had 
not  yet  realized  the  vastness  of  the  Pacific,  and  took 
America  to  be  a  mere  breakwater  protecting  the  precious 
shores  of  Cathay.  Later,  they  found  that  America  repaid 
looting  on  her  own  account;  but  meanwhile  there  was  set 
on  foot  that  search  for  the  Northwest  Passage  which  re- 
sulted in  the  discovery  of  almost  everything  except  the 
Passage  itself.  To  the  craze  for  a  Northwest  Passage  is 
due  the  exploration  of  Baffin's  and  Hudson's  Bays,  of  the 


Gulf  and  River  of  St.  Lawrence,  and  of  the  Great  Lakes; 
the  establishment  of  the  English  and  French  fur-trading 
Companies,  which  hastened  the  development  of  Canada; 
and  the  settlement  of  Oregon  and  Washington.  It  led 
English  and  Spanish  explorers  and  freebooters  up  the  Cali- 
fornia coast,  and  on  to  Vancouver  and  Bering  Straits; 
Alaska  was  circumvented,  and  the  Northwest  Passage  was 
found,  though  the  everlasting  ice  mocked  the  efforts  of  the 
finders.  In  short,  the  entire  continent  was  tapped  and 
sounded  with  a  view  to  forcing  a  way  through  or  round  it; 
and  by  the  time  the  attempt  was  finally  given  up,  the  con- 
tour, size,  and  possible  value  of  America  had  been  estimated 
much  more  quickly  and  accurately  than  they  would  have 
been,  had  not  India  lain  west  of  it. 

All  this  time  Spain  had  been  having  the  best  of  the  bar- 
gain. She  had  fastened  upon  the  "West  Indies,  Mexico,  and 
Central  and  South  America,  and  had  found  gold  there  in 
abundance ;  she  bade  other  nations  keep  hands  off,  and  was 
less  solicitous  than  they  about  the  rumored  riches  of  the 
Orient.  Spain,  in  those  days,  was  held  to  be  invincible  on 
the  sea ;  England's  fight  with  the  Spanish  Armada  was  yet 
to  come.  But  there  were  already  Englishmen  of  the  Drake 
and  Frobisher  type  who  liked  nothing  better  than  to  capture 
a  Spanish  galleon,  and  "singe  the  king  of  Spain's  beard"; 
and  these  independent  sea-rovers  were  becoming  so  bold  and 
numerous  as  to  put  the  Spaniards  to  serious  inconvenience 
and  loss.  But  the  latter  could  not  be  ousted  from  their 
vantage  ground ;  so  the  English  presently  bethought  them- 
selves that  there  might  be  gold  in  the  more  northerly  as  well 
as  in  the  central  parts  of  the  Continent ;  and  they  turned  to 
seek  it  there.  Nothing  is  more  noticeable  in  every  phase  of 
these  events  than  the  constant  involuntary  accomplishment 
of  something  other — and  in  the  end  better — than  the  thing 
attempted.  As  Columbus,  looking  for  Indian  spices,  found 
America;  as  seekers  of  all  nations,  in  their  quest  for  a 
Northwest  Passage,  charted  and  developed  the  continent: 


20  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

so  Sir  Walter  Ealeigh  and  his  companions,  hunting  for  gold 
along  the  northern  Atlantic  seaboard,  took  the  first  steps 
toward  founding  the  colonies  which  were  in  the  sequel  to 
constitute  the  germ  of  the  present  United  States. 

Queen  Elizabeth  was  on  the  throne  of  England;  more 
than  ninety  years  had  passed  since  Columbus  had  landed  on 
his  Caribbean  island.  In  1565  a  colony  of  French  Hugue- 
nots at  St.  Augustine  had,  by  a  characteristic  act  of  Spanish 
treachery,  been  massacred,  men,  women,  and  children,  at 
the  order  of  Melendez,  and  the  French  thus  wiped  out  of 
the  southern  coast  of  North  America  forever.  •  While  Eng- 
land remained  Catholic,  the  influence  of  Papal  bulls  hi  favor 
of  Spanish  authority  in  America,  and  matrimonial  alliances 
between  the  royal  families  of  Spain  and  England,  had  re- 
strained English  enterprise  in  the  west.  Henry  VIII.  had 
indeed  acted  independently  both  of  the  Spaniard  and  of  the 
Pope;  but  it  was  not  until  Elizabeth's  accession  in  1558, 
bringing  Protestantism  with  her,  that  England  ventured 
to  assert  herself  as  a  nation  in  the  new  found  world. 
Willoughby  had  attempted,  in  1553,  the  preposterous  enter- 
prise of  reaching  India  by  sailing  round  Norway  and  the 
north  of  Asia;  but  his  expedition  got  no  further  than  the 
Russian  port  of  Archangel.  In  1576  and  the  two  succeed- 
ing years,  Martin  Frobisher  went  on  voyages  to  Labrador 
and  neighboring  regions,  at  first  searching  for  the  North- 
west Passage,  afterward  in  quest  of  gold.  The  only  result 
of  his  efforts  was  the  bringing  to  England  of  some  shiploads 
of  earth,  which  had  been  erroneously  supposed  to  contain 
the  precious  metal.  In  1578,  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  had 
obtained  a  patent  empowering  him  to  found  a  colony  some- 
where in  the  north ;  his  object  being  rather  to  develop  the 
fisheries  than  to  find  gold  or  routes  to  India.  He  was  step- 
brother of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  and  the  latter  started  with 
him  on  the  first  voyage;  but  they  were  forced  to  put  back 
soon  after  setting  out.  Gilbert  went  again  in  1583,  and 
reached  St.  John's,  where  he  erected  a  pillar  commemorat- 


COLUMBUS,  RALEIGH   AND   SMITH  21 

ing  the  English  occupation;  but  he  was  drowned  hi  a 
storm  on  the  way  home.  Raleigh,  who  had  stayed  in 
England,  and  had  acquired  royal  favor  and  a  fortune, 
remained  to  carry  out,  in  his  own  way,  the  designs  which 
Gilbert's  death  had  left  in  suspense.  In  1584  he  began 
the  work. 

Raleigh  perhaps  deserves  to  be  regarded  as  the  greatest 
English  gentleman  who  ever  lived.  In  addition  to  the 
learning  of  his  time,  he  had  a  towering  genius,  indomi- 
table courage  and  constancy,  lofty  and  generous  principles, 
far-seeing  wisdom,  Christian  humanity,  and  a  charity  that 
gave  and  forgave  to  the  end.  He  was  a  courtier  and  a 
statesman,  a  soldier  and  a  sailor,  a  merchant  and  an  ex- 
plorer. His  lif  e  was  one  of  splendid  and  honorable  deeds ; 
he  was  not  a  talker,  and  found  scant  leisure  to  express  him- 
self in  writing ;  though  when  he  chose  to  write  poetry  he 
approved  himself  best  in  the  golden  age  of  English  litera- 
ture; and  his  "History  of  the  World,"  composed  while  im- 
prisonment in  the  Tower  prevented  him  from  pursuing  more 
active  employments,  is  inferior  to  no  other  produced  up  to 
that  time.  Such  reverses  as  he  met  with  in  life  only  spurred 
him  to  fresh  efforts,  and  his  successes  were  magnificent,  and 
conducive  to  the  welfare  of  the  world.  He  was  a  patriot  of 
the  highest  and  purest  type;  a  champion  of  the  oppressed; 
a  supporter  of  all  worthy  enterprises,  a  patron  of  literature 
and  art.  "Withal,  he  was  full  of  the  warm  blood  of  human 
nature;  he  had  all  the  fire,  the  tenderness,  and  the  sym- 
pathies that  may  rightly  belong  to  a  man.  The  mind  is 
astonished  in  contemplating  such  a  being ;  he  is  at  once  so 
close  to  us,  and  so  much  above  the  human  average.  King 
James  I.  of  England,  jealous  of  his  greatness,  imprisoned 
him  for  twelve  years,  on  a  groundless  charge,  and  finally 
slew  him,  at  the  age  of  sixty-six,  broken  by  disease,  and 
saddened,  but  not  soured,  by  the  monstrous  ingratitude  and 
injustice  of  his  treatment.  Upon  the  scaffold,  he  felt  of  the 
edge  of  the  ax  which  was  to  behead  him,  and  smiled,  re- 


22  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES 

marking,  "A  sharp  medicine  to  cure  me  of  my  diseases  lji 
Such  are  the  exploits  of  kings. 

Raleigh  was  the  first  man  who  perceived  that  America 
was  to  be  the  home  of  a  white  people :  that  it  was  to  be  a 
dwelling-place,  not  a  mere  supply-house  for  freebooters  and 
home  traders.  He  resolved  to  do  his  part  toward  making 
it  so;  he  impoverished  himself  in  the  enterprise;  and  though 
the  colony  which  he  planted  in  what  is  now  North  Carolina, 
but  was  then  called  Virginia,  in  honor  of  the  queen,  who 
was  pleased  thus  to  advertise  her  chastity — though  this 
failed  (by  no  fault  of  Raleigh's)  of  its  immediate  object, 
yet  the  lesson  thus  offered  bore  fruit  in  due  season,  and 
the  colonization  of  the  New  World,  shown  to  be  a  possi- 
bility and  an  advantage,  was  taken  up  on  the  lines  Ra- 
leigh had  drawn,  and  resulted  in  the  settlement  whose 
heirs  we  are. 

In  1585,  after  receiving  the  favorable  report  of  a  pre- 
liminary expedition,  Raleigh  sent  out  upward  of  a  hundred 
colonists  under  the  command  of  Sir  Richard  Grenville,  one 
of  the  heroic  figures  of  the  time,  a  man  of  noble  nature  but 
fearful  passions.  They  landed  on  the  island  of  Roanoke, 
off  the  mouth  of  the  river  of  that  name,  and  were  well  re- 
ceived by  the  native  tribes,  who  thought  they  were  immor- 
tal and  divine,  because  they  were  without  women,  and  pos- 
sessed gunpowder.  It  would  have  been  well  had  the  English 
responded  in  kind ;  but  within  a  few  days,  Grenville,  angry 
at  the  non-production  of  a  silver  cup  which  had  been  stolen 
from  his  party  during  a  visit  to  a  village,  burned  the  huts 
and  destroyed  the  crops;  and  later,  Lane,  who  had  been  left 
by  Grenville  in  command  of  the  colony,  invited  the  principal 
chief  of  the  region  to  a  friendly  conference,  and  murdered 
him.  This  method  of  procedure  would  not  have  been  counte- 
nanced by  the  great  promoter  of  the  expedition;  nor  would 
he  have  encouraged  the  hunt  for  gold  that  was  presently 
undertaken.  This  was  the  curse  of  the  time,  and  ever  led 
to  disaster  and  blood.  Nor  did  Lane  escape  the  delusion 


COLUMBUS,  RALEIGH   AND   SMITH  23 

that  a  passage  could  be  found  through  the  land  to  the  In- 
dies; the  savages,  humoring  his  ignorance  for  their  own 
purposes,  assured  him  that  the  Roanoke  River  (which  rises 
some  two  hundred  miles  inland)  communicated  with  the 
Pacific  at  a  distance  of  but  a  few  days'  journey.  Lane 
selected  a  party  and  set  hopefully  forth  to  traverse  fifty 
degrees  of  latitude ;  but  ere  long  his  provisions  gave  out, 
and  he  was  forced  to  go  starving  back  again.  He  arrived 
at  the  settlement  just  in  time  to  save  it  from  annihilation 
by  the  Indians. 

But  there  were  able  men  among  these  colonists,  and  some 
things  were  done  which  were  not  foolish.  Hariot,  who  had 
scientific  knowledge,  and  was  a  careful  observer,  made  notes 
of  the  products  of  the  land,  and  became  proficient  in  tobacco 
smoking;  he  also  tested  and  approved  the  potato,  and  hi 
other  ways  laid  the  foundation  for  a  profitable  export  and 
import  trade.  John  White,  an  artist,  who  afterward  was 
put  in  charge  of  another  colony,  made  drawings  of  the 
natives  and  their  appurtenances,  which  still  survive,  and 
witness  his  fidelity  and  skill.  Explorations  up  and  down 
the  coast,  and  for  some  distance  inland,  were  made;  the 
salubrity  of  the  climate  was  eulogized,  and  it  was  admitted 
that  the  soil  was  of  excellent  fertility.  In  short,  nothing 
was  lacking,  in  the  way  of  natural  conditions,  to  make  the 
colony  a  success ;  yet  the  Englishmen  grew  homesick  and 
despondent,  and  longed  to  return  to  England  and  English 
women.  The  supplies  which  they  were  expecting  from 
home  had  not  arrived;  and  their  situation  was  rendered 
somewhat  precarious  by  the  growing  hostility  of  the  na- 
tives, who  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  these  godlike 
white  men  were  not  persons  with  whom  it  was  expedient 
for  them  to  associate. 

At  this  juncture,  down  upon  the  coast  suddenly  swooped 
a  fleet  of  over  twenty  sail  with  the  English  flag  flying,  and 
no  less  a  personage  than  Sir  Francis  Drake  in  command. 
He  was  returning  from  a  profitable  pirating  expedition 


24  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES 

against  the  Spaniards  in  the  "West  Indies,  and  desired  to 
see  for  himself  how  the  colony  sent  out  by  his  friend  Raleigh 
was  prospering.  Out  of  his  easily-got  abundance  he  gener- 
ously supplied  the  needs  of  the  colonists,  and  presented  them 
with  a  ship  into  the  bargain,  in  which  they  might  sail  home 
should  circumstances  demand  it.  A  couple  of  his  most  ex- 
perienced officers,  too,  were  added  to  the  gift  of  the  generous 
freebooter;  and  the  outlook  was  now  very  different  from 
what  it  had  been  a  few  days  before.  Yet  fate  was  against 
them;  or,  to  speak  more  accurately,  they  had  lost  the  spirit 
which  should  animate  pioneers,  and  when  a  touch  of  bad 
luck  was  added  to  their  indisposition,  they  incontinently 
beat  a  retreat.  A  storm  arose,  which  wrecked  the  ship 
that  Drake  had  given  them,  and  thus  deprived  them  of  the 
means  of  escape  in  case  other  disasters  should  arrive.  They 
besought  Drake  to  take  them  home  with  him ;  and  he,  with 
inexhaustible  good  humor,  agreed  to  do  so.  His  fleet,  with 
the  slack-souled  colonists  on  board,  had  scarcely  lost  sight 
of  the  low  shores  of  Roanoke,  when  the  supply  ship  that 
had  been  so  long  awaited  arrived  with  all  the  requisites  for 
subduing  the  wilderness  on  board.  She  found  the  place  de- 
serted, and,  putting  about,  sailed  for  home  again.  A  fort- 
night later  came  Sir  Richard  Grenville  with  three  ships 
more;  and  he,  being  of  a  persistent  nature,  would  not  con- 
sent to  lose  altogether  the  fruit  of  the  efforts  which  had  been 
made ;  he  left  fifteen  of  his  men  on  the  island,  to  carry  on 
until  fresh  colonists  could  be  brought  from  England.  But 
before  this  could  be  done  the  men  were  dead,  whether  by 
the  act  of  God  or  of  the  savages;  and  the  first  English  ex- 
perience in  colonizing  America  was  at  an  end. 

The  story  of  the  second  colony,  immediately  sent  out  by 
Raleigh,  ends  with  a  mystery  that  probably  hid  a  tragedy. 
Seventeen  women  and  two  children  accompanied  the  eighty- 
nine  men  of  the  party.  Having  established  the  fact  that 
the  land  was  habitable  and  cultivatable,  Raleigh  perceived 
that  in  order  to  render  it  attractive  also  it  was  necessary 


COLUMBUS,  RALEIGH   AND   SMITH  25 

that  the  colonists  should  have  their  helpmeets  with  them. 
For  the  first  time  in  history,  therefore,  the  feet  of  English 
women  pressed  our  soil,  and  the  voices  of  children  made 
music  in  the  woodland  solitudes.  It  had  been  designed  that 
the  more  commodious  bay  of  the  Chesapeake  should  be  the 
scene  of  this  settlement;  but  the  naval  officer  who  should 
have  superintended  the  removal  was  hungering  for  a  "West 
Indian  trading  venture,  and  declined  to  act.  They  perforce 
established  themselves  in  the  old  spot,  therefore,  where  the 
buildings  were  yet  standing  on  the  northern  end  of  the  little 
island,  which,  though  deserted  now,  is  for  us  historic  ground. 
The  routine  of  lif e  began ;  and  before  the  ship  sailed  on  her 
return  trip  to  England,  the  daughter  of  the  governor  and 
artist,  John  White,  who  was  married  to  one  of  his  subordi- 
nates named  Dare,  had  given  birth  to  a  daughter,  and  called 
her  Virginia.  She  was  the  first  child  of  English  blood  who 
could  be  claimed  as  American;  she  came  into  the  world, 
from  which  she  was  so  soon  to  vanish,  on  the  18th  of 
August,  1587.  White  returned  to  England  with  the  ship 
a  week  or  two  later.  He  was  to  return  again  speedily  with 
more  colonists,  and  further  supplies.  But  he  never  saw  his 
daughter  and  her  infant  after  their  farewell  in  the  land- 
locked bay.  He  reached  England  to  find  Raleigh  and  all 
the  other  strong  men  of  England  occupied  with  plans  to 
repel  the  invasion  that  threatened  from  Spain,  and  which, 
in  the  shape  of  the  Invincible  Armada,  was  to  be  met  and 
destroyed  in  the  English  Channel,  almost  on  the  first  anni- 
versary of  the  birth  of  Virginia  Dare.  Nothing  could  be 
done,  at  the  moment,  to  relieve  the  people  at  Roanoke;  but 
in  April  of  1588,  Raleigh  found  time,  with  the  defense  of 
a  kingdom  on  his  hands,  to  equip  two  ships  and  send  them 
in  White's  charge  to  Virginia.  All  might  have  been  well 
had  White  been  content  to  attend  with  a  single  eye  to  the 
business  in  hand ;  but  the  seas  were  full  of  vessels  which 
could  be  seized  and  stripped  of  their  precious  cargoes,  and 
White  thought  it  would  be  profitable  to  imitate  the  exploits 
U.S.— 2  VOL.  I. 


26  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES 

of  Drake  and  Grenville*  and  take  a  few  prizes  to  Eoanoke 
with  him.  But  he  was  the  ass  in  the  lion's  hide.  One  of 
his  ships  was  itself  attacked  and  gutted,  and  with  the  other 
he  fled  in  terror  back  to  London.  Raleigh  could  not  help 
him  now ;  his  own  fortune  was  exhausted ;  and  it  was  not 
until  the  Armada  had  come  and  gone,  and  the  country  had 
in  a  measure  recovered  itself  from  the  shocks  of  war,  that 
succor  could  be  attempted.  The  charter  which  had  been 
granted  to  Raleigh  enabled  him  to  give  liberal  terms  to  a 
company  of  merchants  and  others,  who  on  their  part  could 
raise  the  funds  for  the  voyage.  But  though  Raleigh  exe- 
cuted this  patent  in  the  spring  of  1589,  it  was  not  until  more 
than  a  year  afterward  that  the  expedition  was  ready  to  sail. 
White  went  with  them,  and  we  may  imagine  with  what 
straining  eyes  he  scanned  the  spot  where  he  had  last  beheld 
his  daughter  and  grandchild,  as  the  ship  glided  up  the  inlet. 
But  no  one  came  forth  between  the  trees  to  wave  a  greeting 
to  his  long- deferred  return;  there  were  no  figures  on  the 
shore,  no  smoke  of  family  fires  rose  heavenward;  families 
and  hearths  alike  were  gone.  The  place  was  a  desert.  Lit- 
tle Virginia  Dare  and  the  Lost  Colony  of  Roanoke  had  al- 
ready passed  out  of  history,  leaving  no  clew  to  their  fate 
except  the  single  word  "CROAT AN"  inscribed  on  the  bark 
of  a  tree.  It  was  the  name  of  an  island  further  down  the 
coast;  and  had  White  gone  thither,  he  might  even  yet  have 
found  the  lost.  But  he  was  a  man  unfitted  in  all  respects 
to  live  in  that  age  and  take  part  in  its  enterprises.  He  was 
a  soft,  feeble,  cowardly  and  unfaithful  creature,  yet  vain 
and  ambitious,  and  eager  to  share  the  fame  of  men  immeas- 
urably larger  and  worthier  than  he.  He  could  draw  pict- 
ures, but  he  could  not  do  deeds;  and  now,  after  having 
deserted  those  to  whom  he  had  been  in  honor  bound  to 
cleave,  he  pleaded  the  excuse  of  bad  weather  and  the  late- 
ness of  the  season  for  abandoning  them  once  more;  and, 
re-embarking  on  his  ship,  he  went  back  with  all  his  company 
to  England.  It  was  the  dastardly  ending  of  the  first  effort, 


COLUMBUS,  RALEIGH   AND   SMITH  27 

nobly  conceived,  and  supported  through  five  years,  to  en- 
graft the  English  race  in  the  soil  of  America. 

Tradition  hazards  the  conjecture  that  the  Roanoke  col- 
ony, or  some  of  them,  were  cared  for  by  the  friendly  Indians 
of  Hatteras.  There  was  a  rumor  that  seven  of  them  were 
still  living  twenty  years  after  "White's  departure.  But  no 
certain  news  was  ever  had  of  them,  though  several  later 
attempts  to  trace  them  were  made.  Between  the  time  when 
their  faint-hearted  governor  had  deserted  them,  and  his  re- 
turn, three  years  had  passed ;  and  if  they  were  not  early 
destroyed  by  the  hostile  tribes,  they  must  have  endured  a 
more  lingering  nain  in  hoping  against  hope  for  the  white 
sails  that  never  rose  above  the  horizon.  Most  of  them,  if 
not  all,  were  doubtless  massacred,  by  the  Indians,  if  not  at 
once,  then  when  it  became  evident  that  no  succor  was  to 
be  expected  for  them.  Some,  possibly,  were  carried  into 
captivity ;  and  it  may  be  that  Virginia  Dare  herself  grew 
up  to  become  the  white  squaw  of  an  Indian  brave,  and  that 
her  blood  still  flows  in  the  veins  of  some  unsuspected  red 
man.  But  it  is  more  likely  that  she  died  with  the  others, 
one  of  the  earliest  and  most  innocent  of  the  victims  sacrificed 
on  the  altar  of  a  great  idea. 

White  disappears  from  history  at  this  point ;  but  Raleigh 
never  forgot  his  colony,  and  five  times,  at  his  own  expense, 
and  in  the  midst  of  events  that  might  have  monopolized  the 
energies  of  a  score  of  ordinary  men,  he  dispatched  expedi- 
tions to  gain  tidings  of  them.  In  1595  he  himself  sailed  for 
Trinidad,  on  the  northern  coast  of  South  America,  and  ex- 
plored the  river  Orinoco,  nine  degrees  above  the  equator.  It 
was  his  hope  to  offset  the  power  of  Spain  in  Mexico  and 
Peru  by  establishing  an  English  colony  in  Guiana.  Wars 
claimed  his  attention  during  the  next  few  years,  and  then 
came  his  long  imprisonment;  but  in  1616,  two  years  before 
his  execution,  he  headed  a  last  expedition  to  the  southern 
coast  of  the  land  he  had  labored  so  faithfully  to  unite  to 
England.  It  failed  of  its  objecf,  and  Raleigh  lost  his  head. 


28  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

But  the  purpose  which  he  had  steadfastly  entertained  did 
not  die  with  him ;  and  we  Americans  claim  him  to-day  as 
the  first  friend  and  father  of  the  conception  of  a  great  white 
people  beyond  the  sea. 

As  we  enter  the  Seventeenth  Century,  the  figure  which 
looms  largest  in  the  foreground  is  that  of  Captain  John 
Smith,  governor  of  the  colony  at  Jamestown  in  1607.  But 
the  way  was  prepared  for  him  by  a  man  as  honorable, 
though  less  distinguished,  Bartholomew  Gosnold  by  name, 
who  voyaged  to  the  New  England  coast  in  1602,  and  was 
the  first  to  set  foot  on  its  shores.  The  first  land  he  sighted 
was  what  is  now  called  Maine ;  thence  he  steered  southward, 
and  disembarked  on  Cape  Cod,  on  which  he  bestowed  that 
name.  Proceeding  yet  further  south,  between  the  islands 
off  the  coast,  he  finally  entered  the  inclosed  sound  of  Buz- 
zard's Bay,  and  landed  on  the  island  of  Cuttyhunk.  Gos- 
nold was  a  prudent  as  well  as  an  adventurous  man,  and  he 
was  resolved  to  take  all  possible  precautions  against  being 
surprised  by  the  Indians.  On  Cuttyhunk  there  was  a  large 
pond,  and  in  the  pond  there  was  an  islet ;  and  Gosnold,  with 
his  score  of  followers,  fixed  upon  this  speck  of  rocky  earth  as 
the  most  suitable  spot  in  the  western  hemisphere  wherein  to 
plant  the  roots  of  English  civilization.  They  built  a  hut 
and  made  a  boat,  and  gathered  together  their  stores  of  furs 
and  sassafras ;  but  these  same  stores  proved  their  undoing. 
They  could  not  agree  upon  an  equable  division  of  their 
wealth;  and  recognizing  that  disunion  in  a  strange  land 
was  weakness  and  peril,  they  all  got  into  their  ship  and 
sailed  back  to  England,  carrying  their  undivided  furs  and 
sassafras  with  them.  By  this  mishap,  New  England  missed 
becoming  the  scene  of  the  first  permanent  English  colony. 
For  when,  five  years  afterward,  Gosnold  returned  to  Amer- 
ica with  a  hundred  men  and  adequate  supplies,  it  was  not 
to  Buzzard's  Bay,  but  to  the  mouth  of  the  James  River,  that 
he  steered,  and  on  its  banks  the  colony  was  founded.  Gos- 
nold himself  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  the  type  that 


COLUMBUS,  RALEIGH   AND   SMITH  29 

afterward  made  the  New  England  whalers  famous  in  all 
seas;  the  mariners  of  New  Bedford,  New  London,  Sag 
Harbor  and  Nantucket.  But  the  companions  of  his  second 
voyage  were  by  no  means  of  this  stamp;  the  bulk  of  them 
were  "gentlemen,"  who  had  no  familiarity  with  hard  fare 
and  hard  work,  and  expected  nature  to  provide  for  them  in 
the  wilderness  as  bountifully  as  the  London  caterers  had 
done  at  home.  To  the  accident  which  brought  Gosnold  to 
a  southerly  instead  of  a  northerly  port  on  this  occasion  may 
be  due  the  fact  that  Virginia  instead  of  Massachusetts  be- 
came the  home  of  the  emigrant  cavaliers.  Had  they,  as 
well  as  the  Puritans,  chosen  New  England  for  their  abiding 
place,  an  amalgamation  might  have  taken  place  which  would 
have  vitally  modified  later  American  history.  But  destiny 
kept  them  apart  in  place  as  well  as  in  sentiment  and  train- 
ing ;  and  it  is  only  in  our  own  day  that  Reconstruction,  and 
the  development  of  means  of  intercommunication,  bid  fair 
to  make  a  homogeneous  people  out  of  the  diverse  elements 
which  for  so  many  generations  recognized  at  most  only  an 
outward  political  bond. 

Captain  John  Smith,  fortunately,  was  neither  a  cavalier 
nor  a  simple  mariner,  but  a  man  in  a  class  by  himself,  and 
just  at  that  juncture  the  most  useful  that  could  possibly 
have  been  attached  to  this  adventure.  His  career  even 
before  the  present  period  had  been  so  romantic  that,  partly 
for  that  reason,  and  partly  because  he  himself  was  his  own 
chief  chronicler,  historians  have  been  prone  to  discredit  or 
modify  many  of  its  episodes.  But  what  we  know  of  Smith 
from  other  than  a  Smith  source  tallies  so  well  with  the 
stories  which  rest  upon  his  sole  authority  that  there  seems 
to  be  no  sound  cause  for  rejecting  the  latter.  After  making 
all  deductions,  he  remains  a  remarkable  personage,  and  his 
influence  upon  the  promotion  of  the  English  colonial  scheme 
was  wholly  beneficial.  He  was  brave,  ingenious,  indefati- 
gable, prudent  and  accomplished;  he  knew  what  should  be 
done,  and  was  ever  foremost  in  doing  it.  He  took  held  of 


30  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  helpless  and  slow-witted  colonists  as  a  master  carpenter 
handles  blocks  of  wood,  and  transformed  them  into  an  effi- 
cient and  harmonious  structure,  strong  enough  to  withstand 
the  first  onsets  of  misfortune,  and  to  endure  until  the  arrival 
of  recruits  from  home  placed  them  beyond  all  danger  of 
calamity. 

Smith  was  born  in  England  in  1579,  and  was  therefore 
only  twenty-eight  years  of  age  when  he  embarked  with 
Gosnold.  Yet  he  had  already  fought  in  the  Netherlands, 
starved  in  France,  and  been  made  a  galley-slave  by  the 
Moslem.  He  had  been  shipwrecked  at  one  time,  thrown 
overboard  at  another,  and  robbed  at  a  third.  Thrice  had 
he  met  and  slain  Turkish  champions  in  the  lists;  and  he 
had  traversed  the  steppes  of  Russia  with  only  a  handful  of 
grain  for  food.  He  was  not  a  man  of  university  education: 
the  only  schooling  he  had  had  was  in  the  free  schools  of 
Alford  and  Louth,  before  his  fifteenth  year;  his  father  was 
a  tenant  farmer  in  Lincolnshire,  and  though  John  was  ap- 
prenticed to  a  trade,  he  ran  away  while  a  mere  stripling,  and 
shifted  for  himself  ever  after.  An  adventurer,  therefore,  in 
the  fullest  sense  of  the  word,  he  was ;  and  doubtless  he  had 
the  appreciation  of  his  own  achievements  which  self-made 
men  are  apt  to  have.  But  there  was  sterling  pith  in  him, 
a  dauntless  and  humane  soul,  and  inexhaustible  ability  and 
resource.  Such  a  man  could  not  fail  to  possess  imagination, 
and  imagination  and  self-esteem  combined  conduce  to  highly- 
colored  narrative ;  but  that  Smith  was  a  liar  is  an  unwar- 
ranted assumption,  which  will  not  be  countenanced  here. 

The  Gosnold  colony  had  provided  itself  with  a  charter, 
granted  by  King  James,  and  as  characteristic  of  that  mon- 
arch as  was  his  treatment  of  Raleigh.  It  was  the  first  of 
many  specimens  of  absentee  landlordism  from  which  Amer- 
ica was  to  suffer.  It  began  by  setting  apart  an  enormous 
stretch  of  territory,  bounded  on  the  north  by  the  latitude  of 
the  St.  Croix  River,  and  on  the  south  by  that  of  Cape  Fear, 
and  extending  westward  indefinitely.  To  this  domain  was 


COLUMBUS,  RALEIGH   AND   SMITH  31 

given  the  general  title  of  Virginia.  It  was  subdivided  into 
two  approximately  equal  parts,  with  a  neutral  zone  between 
them,  which  covered  the  space  now  occupied  by  the  cities 
of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  "Washington,  and  the  land 
adjoining  them.  The  northern  division  was  given  in  charge 
to  the  "Plymouth  Company,"  and  the  southern  to  the  "Lon- 
don Company";  they  were  separate  mercantile  and  coloniz- 
ing organizations,  but  the  charter  applied  to  both  alike. 

The  colonies  were  to  be  under  the  immediate  control  of 
a  council  composed  of  residents,  but  appointed  by  the  king; 
this  council  was  subordinate  to  another,  meeting  in  Eng- 
land ;  and  this  in  its  turn  was  subject  to  the  king's  absolute 
authority.  The  emigrants  were  to  pay  a  yearly  rent  of  one- 
fifth  of  the  gold  and  silver  produced,  and  a  third  as  much 
of  the  copper.  A  five  per  cent  duty  levied  on  alien  traffic 
was  for  the  first  five-and-twenty  years  to  inure  to  the  benefit 
of  the  colony,  but  afterward  should  be  the  exclusive  per- 
quisite of  the  Crown.  The  right  to  call  themselves  and 
their  children  English  was  permitted  to  the  emigrants;  and 
they  were  also  allowed  to  defend  themselves  against  attacks, 
though  it  was  enjoined  upon  them  to  treat  the  natives  with 
kindness,  and  to  endeavor  to  draw  them  into  the  fold  of  the 
Church. 

Such  was  James's  idea  of  what  a  charter  for  an  Ameri- 
can colony  should  be.  He  was  taking  much  for  granted 
when  he  assumed  the  right  to  control  the  emigrants  at  all; 
and  he  was  careful  to  deprive  them  of  any  chance  to  control 
in  the  least  degree  their  own  affairs.  America  was  to  be 
the  abode  of  liberty ;  but  this  monarch  thought  only  of  mak- 
ing it  a  field  for  his  private  petty  tyranny.  The  colonists 
were  to  be  his  own  personal  slaves,  and  the  deputy  slaves 
of  the  Companies;  after  discharging  all  their  obligations  to 
him  and  to  them,  they  might  do  the  best  they  could  for 
themselves  with  what  was  left,  provided  of  course  that  they 
strictly  observed  the  laws  which  his  Majesty  was  kind 
enough  also  to  draw  up  for  them,  the  provisions  of  which 


32  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

included  the  penalty  of  death  for  most  offenses  above  petty 
larceny.  A  colony  which,  amid  the  hardships  and  unfa- 
miliar terrors  of  a  virgin  wilderness,  could  enjoy  all  the 
benefits  of  a  charter  like  this,  and  yet  survive,  would  seem 
hardy  enough  for  any  emergency.  But  James  was  king, 
and  kings,  in  those  days,  if  they  pleased  no  one  else,  pleased 
themselves. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  members  of  the  colony,  being  per- 
sons unused  to  the  practice  of  the  useful  arts,  were  little  apt 
to  succeed  even  under  the  most  favoring  conditions.  But 
they  had  Smith,  in  himself  a  host,  and  a  few  other  good 
heads  and  able  hands ;  and  to  speak  truth,  the  provisions  of 
their  charter  do  not  seem  to  have  unduly  embarrassed  them. 
It  could  annoy  and  hamper  them  occasionally,  but  only 
themselves  could  work  themselves  serious  injury ;  there  were 
three  thousand  miles  of  perilous  sea  water  between  their 
paternal  monarch  and  them,  and  the  wilderness,  with  all 
its  drawbacks,  breeds  self-confidence  and  independence. 
The  mishaps  of  the  colony  were  due  to  the  shiftlessness 
of  most  of  its  members,  and  to  the  insalubrity  of  the  site 
chosen  for  their  city  of  Jamestown,  whereby  more  than  half 
of  them  perished  during  the  first  few  months.  On  the  voy- 
age out,  Smith,  who  had  probably  made  himself  distasteful 
to  the  gentlemen  adventurers  by  his  unconventional  manners 
and  conversation,  had  been  placed  under  restraint — to  what 
extent  is  not  exactly  known;  and  when  the  sealed  orders 
under  which  they  had  sailed  were  opened,  and  it  was  found 
that  Smith  was  named  a  member  of  the  council,  he  was  for 
some  weeks  not  permitted  to  exercise  his  lawful  functions 
in  that  office.  When  the  troubles  began,  however,  the  help- 
less gentlemen  were  glad  to  avail  themselves  of  his  services, 
which  he  with  his  customary  good  humor  readily  accorded 
them ;  and  so  competent  did  he  show  himself  that  ere  long 
he  was  in  virtual  command  of  them  all.  The  usual  search 
for  gold  and  for  the  passage  through  the  continent  to  India 
having  been  made,  with  the  usual  result,  they  all  set  to  work 


COLUMBUS,  RALEIGH   AND   SMITH  33 

to  build  their  fort  and  town,  and  to  provide  food  against  the 
not  improbable  contingency  of  famine.  As  crops  could  not 
be  raised  for  the  emergency,  Smith  set  out  to  traffic  with 
the  natives,  and  brought  back  corn  enough  for  the  general 
need.  All  this  while  he  had  been  contending  with  a  preva- 
lent longing  on  the  part  of  the  colonists  to  get  back  to  Eng- 
land; there  was  no  courage  left  in  them  but  his,  which 
abounded  in  proportion  to  their  need  for  it.  Prominent 
among  the  malcontents  was  the  deposed  governor,  "Wing- 
field,  who  tried  to  bribe  the  colonists  to  return;  another 
member  of  the  council  was  shot  for  mutiny.  In  the  end, 
Smith's  will  prevailed,  and  he  was  governor  and  council 
and  King  James  all  in  one ;  and  when,  at  the  beginning  of 
winter,  he  had  brought  the  settlement  to  order  and  safety, 
he  started  on  a  journey  of  exploration  up  the  Chickahominy. 
He  perceived  the  immense  importance  of  understanding  his 
surroundings,  and  at  the  same  time  of  establishing  friendly 
relations  with  the  neighboring  tribes  of  Indians ;  and  it  was* 
obvious  that  none  but  he  (for  the  excellent  Gosnold  had  died 
of  fever  in  the  first  months  of  the  settlement)  was  capable 
of  effecting  these  objects.  Accordingly  he  proceeded  pros- 
perously toward  the  headwaters  of  the  river,  a  dozen  miles 
above  its  navigable  point ;  but  there,  all  at  once,  he  found 
himself  in  the  midst  of  a  throng  of  frowning  warriors,  who 
were  evidently  resolved  to  put  an  end  to  his  investigations, 
if  not  to  his  existence,  forthwith. 

Another  man  than  Smith  would  have  committed  some 
folly  or  rashness  which  would  have  precipitated  his  fate; 
but  Smith  was  as  much  at  his  ease  as  was  Julius  Caesar  of 
old  on  the  pirate's  ship.  His  two  companions  were  killed, 
but  he  was  treated  as  a  prisoner  of  rank  and  importance  by 
the  brother  of  the  great  chief  Powhatan,  by  whom  he  had 
been  captured.  He  interested  and  impressed  his  captors  by 
his  conversation  and  his  instruments ;  and  at  the  same  time 
he  kept  his  eyes  and  ears  open,  and  missed  no  information 
that  could  be  of  use  to  himself  and  his  colony.  Powhatan 


34  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES 

gave  him  an  audience  and  seems  to  have  adopted  a  consid- 
erate attitude;  at  all  events  he  sent  him  back  to  Jamestown 
after  a  few  days,  unharmed,  and  escorted  by  four  Indians, 
with  a  supply  of  corn.  But  precisely  what  occurred  during 
those  few  days  we  shall  never  certainly  know;  since  we 
must  choose  between  accepting  Smith's  unsupported  story, 
only  made  public  years  afterward,  and  believing  nothing  at 
all.  Smith's  tale  has  charmed  the  imagination  of  all  who 
have  heard  it ;  nothing  could  be  more  prettily  romantic ;  the 
trouble  with  it  is,  it  seems  to  most  people  too  pretty  and 
romantic  to  be  true.  Yet  it  is  simple  enough  in  itself,  and 
not  at  all  improbable ;  there  is  no  question  as  to  the  reality 
of  the  dramatis  personse  of  the  story,  and  their  relations  one 
to  another  render  such  an  episode  as  was  alleged  hardly 
more  than  might  reasonably  be  looked  for. 

The  story  is — as  all  the  world  knows,  for  it  has  been 
repeated  all  over  the  world  for  nearly  three  hundred  years, 
and  has  formed  the  subject  of  innumerable  pictures — that 
Powhatan,  for  reasons  of  high  policy  satisfactory  to  himself, 
had  determined  upon  the  death  of  the  Englishman,  rightly 
inferring  that  the  final  disappearance  of  the  colony  would 
be  the  immediate  sequel  thereof.  The  sentence  was  that 
Smith's  brains  were  to  be  knocked  out  with  a  bludgeon;  and 
he  was  led  into  the  presence  of  the  chief  and  the  warriors, 
and  ordered  to  lay  his  head  upon  the  stone.  He  did  so, 
and  the  executioners  poised  their  clubs  for  the  fatal  blow; 
but  it  never  fell.  For  Smith,  during  his  captivity,  had 
won  the  affection  of  the  little  daughter  of  Powhatan,  a 
girl  of  ten,  whose  name  was  Pocahontas.  She  was  too 
young  to  understand  or  fear  his  power  over  the  Indians; 
but  she  knew  that  he  was  a  winning  and  fascinating 
being,  and  she  could  not  endure  that  he  should  be  sacri- 
ficed. Accordingly,  at  this  supreme  crisis  of  his  career, 
she  slipped  into  the  dreadful  circle,  and  threw  herself 
upon  Smith's  body,  so  that  the  blow  which  was  aimed 
at  his  life  must  kill  her  first.  She  clung  to  him  and 


COLUMBUS,  RALEIGH   AND   SMITH  35 

would  not  be  removed,  until  her  father  had  promised  that 
Smith  should  be  spared. 

So  runs  the  Captain's  narrative,  published  for  the  first 
tune  in  1624,  after  Pocahontas's  appearance  in  London,  and 
her  death  in  1617.  "Why  he  had  not  told  it  before  is  difficult 
to  explain.  Perhaps  he  had  promised  Powhatan  to  keep  it 
secret,  lest  the  record  of  his  sentimental  clemency  should  im- 
pair his  authority  over  the  tribes.  Or  it  may  have  been  an 
embellishment  of  some  comparatively  trifling  incident  of 
Smith's  captivity,  suggested  to  his  mind  as  he  was  com- 
piling his  "General  History  of  Virginia."  It  can  never  be 
determined ;  but  certainly  his  relations  with  the  Indian  girl 
were  always  cordial,  and  it  seems  unlikely  that  Powhatan 
would  have  permitted  him  to  return  to  Jamestown  except 
for  some  unusual  reason. 

Pocahontas's  life  had  vicissitudes  such  as  seldom  befall 
an  Indian  maiden.  Some  time  between  the  Smith  episode 
of  1607,  and  the  year  1612,  she  married  one  of  her  father's 
tributary  chiefs,  and  went  to  live  with  him  on  his  reserva- 
tion. There  she  was  in  some  manner  kidnapped  by  one 
Samuel  Argall,  and  held  for  ransom.  The  ransom  was 
paid,  but  Pocahontas  was  not  sent  back;  and  the  follow- 
ing year  she  was  married  to  John  Rolf e,  a  Jamestown  col- 
onist, and  baptized  as  Rebecca.  He  took  her  to  London, 
where  she  was  a  nine  days'  wonder ;  and  they  had  a  son, 
whose  blood  still  flows  in  not  a  few  American  veins  to-day. 
If  she  was  ten  years  old  in  1607,  she  must  have  been  no 
more  than  twenty  at  the  time  of  her  death  in  Gravesend, 
near  London.  But  her  place  in  American  history  is  secure, 
as  well  as  in  the  hearts  of  all  good  Americans.  She  was 
the  heroine  of  the  first  American  romance;  and  she  is 
said  to  have  been  as  beautiful  as  all  our  heroines  should 
rightly  be. 

When  Smith,  with  his  Indian  escort,  got  back  to  James- 
town, he  was  just  in  season  to  prevent  the  colony  from  run- 
ning away  in  the  boat.  Soon  after  a  new  consignment  of 


36  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

emigrants  and  supplies  arrived  from  England;  but  again 
there  were  fewer  men  than  gentlemen,  and  Smith  sent  back 
a  demand  for  "rather  thirty  carpenters,  husbandmen,  gar- 
deners, fishermen,  blacksmiths,  masons,  and  diggers  up  of 
trees'  roots,  well  provided,  than  a  thousand  of  such  as  we 
have."  There  spoke  the  genuine  pioneer,  whose  heart  is 
in  his  work,  and  who  can  postpone  "gentility"  until  it 
grows  indigenously  out  of  the  soil.  The  Company  at  home 
were  indignant  that  their  colony  had  not  ere  now  reimbursed 
them  for  their  expenditure,  and  much  more ;  and  they  sent 
word  that  unless  profits  were  forthcoming  forthwith  (one- 
fifth  of  the  gold  and  silver,  and  so  forth)  they  would  aban- 
don the  colony  to  its  fate.  One  cannot  help  admiring  Smith 
for  refraining  from  the  obvious  rejoinder  that  to  be  aban- 
doned was  the  dearest  boon  that  they  could  crave ;  but  a 
sense  of  humor  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  few  good 
qualities  which  the  Captain  did  not  possess.  He  intimated 
to  the  Company  that  money  was  not  to  be  picked  up  ready 
made  in  Virginia,  but  must  be  earned  by  hard  work  with 
hands  and  heads  in  the  field  and  forest.  It  is  his  distinction 
to  have  been  the  first  man  of  eminence  visiting  the  new 
world  who  did  not  think  more  of  finding  gold,  or  the  pas- 
sage to  India,  or  both,  than  of  anything  else.  Smith  knew 
that  in  this  world,  new  or  old,  men  get  what  they  work  for, 
and  in  the  long  run  no  more  than  that ;  and  he  made  his 
gentlemen  colonists  take  off  their  coats  and  blister  their  gen- 
tlemanly hands  with  the  use  of  the  spade  and  the  ax.  It  is 
said  that  they  excelled  as  woodcutters,  after  due  instruction-, 
and  they  were  undoubtedly  in  all  respects  improved  by  this 
first  lesson  in  Americanism.  The  American  ax  and  its 
wielders  have  become  famous  since  that  day;  and  the  gen- 
tlemen of  Jamestown  may  enjoy  the  credit  of  having  blazed 
the  way. 

Fresh  emigrants  kept  coming  in,  of  a  more  or  less  desir- 
able quality,  as  is  the  case  with  emigrants  still.  Some  of 
them  had  been  sent  out  by  other  organizations  than  the  Lon- 


COLUMBUS,  RALEIGH   AND   SMITH  37 

don  Company,  and  bred  confusion ;  but  Smith  was  always 
more  than  equal  to  the  emergency,  and  kept  his  growing 
brood  in  hand.  He  had  the  satisfaction  of  feeling  that  he 
was  the  right  man  in  the  right  place ;  and  let  the  grass  grow 
under  neither  his  feet  nor  theirs.  The  abandonment  threat 
of  the  London  Company  led  him  to  take  measures  to  make 
the  colony  independent  so  far  as  food  was  concerned,  and  a 
tract  of  land  was  prepared  and  planted  with  corn.  Traffic 
for  supplies  with  the  Indians  was  systematized ;  and  by  the 
time  Smith's  year  of  office  had  expired  the  Jamestown  set- 
tlement was  self-supporting,  and  forever  placed  beyond  the 
reach  of  annihilation — though,  the  very  year  after  he  had 
left  it,  it  came  within  measurable  distance  thereof. 

He  now  returned  to  England,  and  never  revisited  James- 
town ;  but  he  by  no  means  relaxed  his  interest  in  American 
colonization,  or  his  efforts  to  promote  it.  In  1614  he  once 
more  sailed  westward  with  two  ships,  on  a  trading  and  ex- 
ploring enterprise,  which  was  successful.  He  examined  and 
mapped  the  northern  coast,  already  seen  by  Gosnold,  and 
bestowed  upon  the  country  the  name  of  New  England. 
Traditions  of  his  presence  and  exploits  are  still  told  along 
the  shores  of  Maine,  New  Hampshire  and  Massachusetts. 
In  the  year  following  he  tried  to  found  a  small  colony  some- 
where in  these  regions,  but  was  defeated  by  violent  storms; 
and  at  a  subsequent  attempt  he  fell  in  with  French  pirates, 
and  his  ship  and  fortune  were  lost,  though  he  himself  escaped 
in  an  open  skiff :  the  chains  were  never  forged  that  could 
hold  this  man.  Nor  was  his  spirit  broken ;  he  took  his  map 
and  his  description  of  New  England,  and  personally  can- 
vassed all  likely  persons  with  a  view  to  fitting  out  a  new 
expedition.  In  1617,  aided  perhaps  by  the  interest  which 
Pocahontas  had  aroused  in  London,  he  was  promised  a  fleet 
of  twenty  vessels,  and  the  title  of  Admiral  of  New  England 
was  bestowed  upon  him.  Admiral  he  remained  till  his  death; 
but  the  fleet  he  was  to  command  never  put  forth  to  sea.  A 
ship  more  famous  than  any  he  had  captained  was  to  sail  for 

46714 


38  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES 

New  England  in  1620,  and  land  the  Pilgrims  on  Plymouth 
Rock.  Smith's  active  career  was  over,  though  he  was  but 
eight-and-thirty  years  of  age,  and  had  fifteen  years  of  life 
still  before  him.  He  had  drunk  too  deeply  of  the  intoxicat- 
ing cup  of  adventure  and  achievement  ever  to  be  content 
with  a  duller  draught ;  and  from  year  to  year  he  continued 
to  use  his  arguments  and  representations  upon  all  who  would 
listen.  But  he  no  longer  had  money  of  his  own,  and  he  was 
forestalled  by  other  men.  He  was  to  have  no  share  in  the 
development  of  the  country  which  he  had  charted  and 
named.  At  the  time  of  his  death  in  London  in  1632,  poor 
and  disappointed,  Plymouth,  Salem  and  Boston  had  been 
founded,  Virginia  had  entered  upon  a  new  career,  and 
Maryland  had  been  settled  by  the  Catholics  under  Lord 
Baltimore.  The  Dutch  had  created  New  Amsterdam  on 
Manhattan  Island  in  1623;  and  the  new  nation  in  the  new 
continent  was  fairly  under  way. 

Jamestown,  as  has  been  said,  narrowly  escaped  extinc- 
tion in  the  winter  of  1609.  The  colonists  found  none  among 
their  number  to  fill  Smith's  place,  and  soon  relapsed  into  the 
idleness  and  improvidence  which  he  had  so  resolutely  coun- 
teracted. They  ate  all  the  food  which  he  had  laid  up  for 
them,  and  when  it  was  gone  the  Indians  would  sell  them 
no  more.  Squads  of  hungry  men  began  to  wander  about 
the  country,  and  many  of  them  were  murdered  by  the  sav- 
ages. The  mortality  within  the  settlement  was  terrible,  and 
everything  that  could  be  used  as  food  was  eaten ;  at  length 
cannibalism  was  begun ;  the  body  of  an  Indian,  and  then 
the  starved  corpses  of  the  settlers  themselves  were  devoured. 
Many  crawled  away  to  perish  in  the  woods ;  others,  more 
energetic,  seized  a  vessel  and  became  pirates.  In  short, 
such  scenes  were  enacted  as  have  been  lately  beheld  in 
India  and  in  Cuba.  The  severity  of  the  famine  may  be 
judged  from  the  fact  that  out  of  five  hundred  persons  at  the 
beginning  of  the  six  months,  only  sixty  diseased  and  mori- 
bund wretches  survived.  And  this  in  a  land  which  had 


COLUMBUS,  RALEIGH   AND   SMITH  39 

been  described  by  its  discoverers  as  a  very  Garden  of  Eden, 
flowing  with  milk  and  honey. 

Meanwhile,  great  things  were  preparing  in  England. 
Smith's  warning  that  America  must  be  regarded  and 
treated  as  an  agricultural  and  industrial  community,  and 
not  as  a  treasure-box,  had  borne  fruit ;  and  a  new  charter 
was  applied  for,  which  should  more  adequately  satisfy  the 
true  conditions.  It  was  granted  in  1609;  Lord  Salisbury 
was  at  the  head  of  the  promoters,  and  with  him  were  associ- 
ated many  hundreds  of  the  lords,  common  erg  and  merchants 
of  England.  The  land  assigned  to  them  was  a  strip  four 
hundred  miles  in  breadth  north  and  south  of  Old  Point 
Comfort,  and  across  to  the  Pacific,  together  with  all  isl- 
ands lying  within  a  hundred  miles  of  shore.  In  respect  of 
administrative  matters,  the  tendency  of  the  new  charter 
was  toward  a  freer  arrangement ;  in  especial,  the  company 
was  to  exercise  the  powers  heretofore  lodged  with  the  king, 
and  the  supreme  council  was  to  be  chosen  by  the  sharehold- 
ers. The  governor  was  the  appointee  of  the  corporation, 
and  his  powers  were  large  and  under  conditions  almost  abso- 
lute. The  liberties  of  the  emigrants  themselves  were  not 
specifically  enlarged,  but  they  were  at  least  emancipated 
from  the  paternal  solicitude  of  the  stingy  and  self-complacent 
pettifogger  who  graced  the  English  throne. 

Lord  Delaware  was  chosen  governor ;  and  Newport,  Sir 
Thomas  Gates  and  Sir  George  Somers  were  the  commission- 
ers who  were  to  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  colony  until  his 
arrival.  A  large  number  of  emigrants,  many  of  whom  con- 
tributed in  money  and  supplies  to  the  expedition,  were  as- 
sembled, and  the  fleet  numbered  altogether  nine  vessels. 
But  Newport  and  his  fellow  commissioners  suffered  ship- 
wreck on  the  Bermudas,  and  did  not  reach  Jamestown  till 
nine  months  later,  in  May,  1610.  The  calamitous  state  of 
things  which  there  awaited  them  was  an  unwelcome  sur- 
prise ;  and  the  despairing  colonists  would  be  contented  with 
nothing  short  of  exportation  to  Newfoundland.  But  before 


40 

they  could  gain  the  sea,  Lord  Delaware  with  his  ships  and 
provisions  was  met  coming  into  port;  and  the  intending  fugi- 
tives turned  back  with  him.  The  hungry  were  fed,  order 
was  restored,  and  industry  were  re-established.  A  wave  of 
religious  feeling  swept  over  the  little  community ;  the  rule 
of  Lord  Delaware  was  mild,  but  just  and  firm;  and  all 
would  have  been  well  had  not  his  health  failed,  and  com- 
pelled him,  in  the  spring  of  1611,  to  return  to  England. 
The  colony  was  disheartened  anew,  and  the  arrival  of  Sir 
Thomas  Dale  in  Delaware's  place  did  not  at  first  relieve  the 
depression ;  his  training  had  been  military,  and  he  adminis- 
tered affairs  by  martial  law.  But  he  believed  in  the  future 
of  the  enterprise,  and  so  impressed  his  views  upon  the  En- 
glish council  that  six  more  ships,  with  three  hundred  emi- 
grants, were  immediately  sent  to  their  relief.  Gates,  who 
brought  these  recruits  to  Jamestown,  assumed  the  governor- 
ship, and  a  genuine  prosperity  began.  Among  the  most  im- 
portant of  the  improvements  introduced  was  an  approxima- 
tion to  the  right  of  private  ownership  in  land,  which  had 
hitherto  been  altogether  denied,  and  which  gave  the  emi- 
grants a  personal  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  enterprise. 
In  1612  a  third  charter  was  granted,  still  further  increasing 
the  privileges  of  the  settlers,  who  now  found  themselves 
possessed  of  almost  the  same  political  powers  as  they  had 
enjoyed  at  home.  It  was  still  possible,  as  was  thereafter 
shown,  for  unjust  and  selfish  governors  to  inflict  misery  and 
discontent  upon  the  people ;  but  it  was  also  possible,  under 
the  law,  to  give  them  substantial  freedom  and  happiness; 
and  that  was  a  new  light  in  political  conceptions. 

More  than  thirty  years  had  now  passed  since  Raleigh 
first  turned  his  mind  to  the  colonizing  of  Virginia.  He  was 
now  approaching  the  scaffold ;  but  he  could  feel  a  lofty  sat- 
isfaction in  the  thought  that  it  was  mainly  through  him  that 
an  opportunity  of  incalculable  magnitude  and  possibilities 
had  been  given  for  the  enlargement  and  felicity  of  his  race. 
He  had  sowed  the  seed  of  England  beyond  the  seas,  and  the 


COLUMBUS,  RALEIGH   AND   SMITH  41 

quality  of  the  fruit  it  should  bear  was  already  becoming  ap- 
parent to  his  eyes,  soon  to  close  forever  upon  earthly  things. 
The  spirit  of  America  was  his  spirit.  He  was  for  freedom, 
enlightenment,  and  enterprise ;  and  whenever  a  son  of  Amer- 
ica has  fulfilled  our  best  ideal  of  what  an  American  should 
be,  we  find  in  him  some  of  the  traits  and  qualities  which 
molded  the  deeds  and  colored  the  thoughts  of  this  mighty 
Englishman. 

Nor  can  we  find  a  better  example  of  the  restless,  prac- 
tical, resourceful  side  of  the  American  character  than  is 
offered  in  Captain  John  Smith ;  even  in  his  boastf ulness  we 
must  claim  kinship  with  him.  His  sterling  manhood,  his 
indomitable  energy,  his  fertile  invention,  his  ability  as  a 
leader  and  as  a  negotiator,  all  ally  him  with  the  traditional 
Yankee,  who  carries  on  in  so  matter-of-fact  a  way  the  solu- 
tion of  the  problems  of  the  new  democracy.  Both  these  men, 
each  in  his  degree,  were  Americans  before  America. 

And  with  them  we  may  associate  the  name  of  Columbus ; 
to  him  also  we  must  concede  the  spiritual  citizenship  of  our 
country ;  not  because  of  the  bare  fact  that  he  was  the  first 
to  reach  its  shores,  but  because  he  had  a  soul  valiant  enough 
to  resist  and  defy  the  conservatism  that  will  believe  in  no 
new  thing,  and  turns  life  into  death  lest  lif e  should  involve 
labor  and  self-sacrifice.  Columbus,  Smith,  and  Raleigh 
stand  at  the  portals  of  our  history,  types  of  the  faith*  suc- 
cess and  honor  which  are  our  heritage. 


CHAPTER    SECOND 

THE  FREIGHT  OF   THE  MAYFLOWER 

HE  motive  force  which  drove  the  English  Sep- 
aratists and  Puritans  to  a  voluntary  exile  in 
New  England  in  IG'iO  and  later,  had  its  origin 
in  the  brain  of  the  son  of  a  Saxon  slate  cutter 
just  a  century  before.  Martin  Luther  first 
gave  utterance  to  a  mental  protest  which  had 
long  boon  on  the  tongue's  tip  of  many  thoughtful  and  con- 
scientious persons  in  Europe,  but  which,  till  then,  no  one 
had  found  the  courage,  or  the  energy,  or  the  conviction,  or 
the  clear-headedness  (as  the  case  might  be)  to  formulate  and 
announce.  Once  having  reached  its  focus,  however,  and  at- 
tained its  expression,  it  spread  like  a  flame  in  dry  stubble, 
and  produced  results  in  men  and  nations  rarely  precedented 
in  the  history  of  the  world,  whose  vibrations  have  not  yet 
died  away. 

Henry  VIII.  of  England  was  born  and  died  a  Catholic; 
thougtTof  religion  of  any  kind  he  never  betrayed  an  inkling. 
His  Act  of  Supremacy,  in  1534,  which  set  his  will  above  that 
of  the  Pope  of  Rome,  had  no  religious  bearing,  but  merely 
indicated  that  he  wanted  to  divorce  one  woman  in  order  to 
marry  another.  Nevertheless  it  made  it  incumbent  upon  the 
Pope  to  excommunicate  him,  and  thus  placed  him,  and  Eng- 
land as  represented  by  him.  in  a  quasi-dissenting  attitude 
toward  the  orthodox  faith.  And  coming  as  it  did  so  soon 
after  Luther's  outbreak,  it  may  have  encouraged  English- 
men to  think  on  lines  of  liberal  belief. 

Passionate  times  followed  in  religious — or  rather  in  theo 


THE   FREIGHT   OF   THE   MAYFLOWER  43 

logical — matters,  all  through  the  Sixteenth  Century.  The 
fulminations  of  Luther  and  the  logic  of  Calvin  set  England 
to  discussing  and  taking  sides ;  and  when  Edward  VI.  came 
to  the  throne,  he  was  himself  a  Protestant,  or  indeed  a  Puri- 
tan, and  the  stimulus  of  Puritanism  in  others.  But  the 
mass  of  the  common  people  were  still  unmoved,  because 
there  was  no  means  of  getting  at  them,  and  they  had  no 
stomach  for  dialectics,  if  there  had  been.  The  new  ideas 
would  probably  have  made  little  headway  had  not  Edward 
died  and  Mary  the  Catholic  come  red-hot  with  zeal  into  his 
place.  She  lost  no  time  in  catching  and  burning  all  dissen- 
ters, real  or  suspected ;  and  as  many  of  these  were  honest 
persons  who  lived  among  the  people,  and  were  known  and 
approved  by  them,  and  as  they  uniformly  endured  their 
martyrdom  with  admirable  fortitude  and  good-humor,  fall- 
ing asleep  in  the  crackling  flames  like  babes  at  the  mother's 
breast,  Puritanism  received  an  advertisement  such  as  noth- 
ing since  Christianity  had  enjoyed  before,  and  which  all  the 
unaided  Luthers,  Melanchthons  and  Calvins  in  the  world 
could  not  have  given  it. 

This  lasted  five  years,  after  which  Mary  went  to  her  re- 
ward, and  Elizabeth  came  to  her  inheritance.  She  was  no 
more  of  a  religion-monger  than  her  distinguished  father  had 
been ;  but  she  was,  like  him,  jealous  of  her  authority,  and 
a  martinet  for  order  and  obedience  at  all  costs.  A  certain 
intellectual  voluptuousness  of  nature  and  an  artistic  instinct 
inclined  her  to  the  splendid  forms  and  ceremonies  of  the 
Catholic  ritual;  but  she  was  too  good  a  politician  not  to 
understand  that  a  large  part  of  her  subjects  were  unalter- 
ably opposed  to  the  papacy.  After  some  consideration, 
therefore,  she  adopted  the  expedient  of  a  compromise,  the 
substance  of  which  was  that  whatever  was  handsome  and 
attractive  in  Catholicism  was  to  be  retained,  and  only  those 
technical  points  dropped  which  made  the  Pope  the  despot 
of  the  Church.  In  ordinary  times  this  would  have  answered 
very  well ;  human  nature  likes  to  eat  its  cake  and  have  it 


44  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

too;  but  this  time  was  anything  but  ordinary.  The  reaction 
from  old  to  new  ways  of  thinking,  and  the  unforgotten  per- 
secutions of  Mary,  had  made  men  very  fond  of  their  opin- 
ions, and  preternaturally  unwilling  to  enter  into  bargains 
with  their  consciences.  At  the  same  time  loyalty  to  the 
Crown  was  still  a  fetich  in  England,  as  indeed  it  always 
has  been,  except  at  and  about  the  time  when  Oliver  Crom- 
well and  others  cut  off  the  head  of  the  First  Charles.  Con- 
sequently when  Elizabeth  and  "Whitgift,  her  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  set  about  putting  their  house  in  order  in  ear- 
nest, they  were  met  with  a  mixture  of  humble  loyalty  and 
immovable  resistance  which  would  have  perplexed  any  po- 
tentates less  single-minded.  But  Elizabeth  and  Whitgift 
were  not  of  the  sort  that  sets  its  hand  to  the  plow  and  then 
turns  back ;  they  went  earnestly  on  with  their  banishments 
and  executions,  paying  particular  attention  to  the  Separa- 
tists, but  keeping  plenty  in  hand  for  the  Puritans  also. — 
The  Separatists,  it  may  be  observed,  were  so  called  because 
their  aim  was  to  dispart  themselves  entirely  from  the  ortho- 
dox communion ;  the  Puritans  were  willing  to  remain  in  the 
fold,  but  had  it  in  mind  to  purify  it,  by  degrees,  from  the 
defilement  which  they  held  it  to  have  contracted.  The  for- 
mer would  not  in  the  least  particular  make  friends  with  the 
mammon  of  unrighteousness,  or  condone  the  sins  of  the 
Scarlet  Woman,  or  of  anybody  else ;  they  would  not  inhale 
foul  air,  with  a  view  to  sending  it  forth  again  disinfected 
by  the  fragrance  of  their  own  lungs.  They  took  their  stand 
unequivocally  upon  the  plain  letter  of  Scripture,  and  did 
away  with  all  that  leaned  toward  conciliating  the  lighter 
sentiments  and  emotions ;  they  would  have  no  genuflexions, 
no  altars,  no  forms  and  ceremonies,  no  priestly  vestments, 
no  Apostolic  Succession,  no  priests,  no  confessions,  no  inter- 
mediation of  any  kind  between  the  individual  and  his  Creator. 
The  people  themselves  should  make  and  unmake  their  own 
"ministers,"  and  in  all  ways  live  as  close  to  the  bone  as  they 
could.  The  Puritans  were  not  opposed  to  any  of  these  be- 


THE   FREIGHT   OF   THE   MAYFLOWER  45 

lief  s ;  only  they  were  not  so  set  upon  proclaiming  and  acting 
upon  them  in  season  and  out  of  season ;  they  contended  that 
the  idolatry  of  ritual,  since  it  had  been  -several  centuries 
growing  up,  should  be  allowed  an  appreciable  time  to  dis- 
appear. It  will  easily  be  understood  that,  at  the  bottom  of 
these  religious  innovations  and  inflammations,  was  a  simple 
movement  toward  greater  human  freedom  in  all  directions, 
including  the  political.  It  mattered  little  to  the  zealots  on 
either  side  whether  or  not  the  secret  life  of  a  man  was 
morally  correct ;  he  must  think  in  a  certain  prescribed  way, 
on  pain  of  being  held  damnable,  and,  if  occasion  served,  of 
being  sent  to  the  other  world  before  he  had  opportunity  to 
further  confirm  his  damnation.  The  dissenters,  when  they 
got  in  motion,  were  just  as  intolerant  and  bigoted  as  the 
conformists;  and  toward  none  was  this  intolerance  more 
strongly  manifested  than  toward  such  as  were  in  the  main, 
but  not  altogether,  of  their  way  of  thinking.  The  Quakers 
and  the  Independents  had  almost  as  hard  an  experience  in 
New  England,  at  the  hands  of  the  Puritans,  as  the  latter 
had  endured  from  good  Queen  Bess  and  her  henchmen  a 
few  years  before.  But  really,  religion,  in  the  absolute  sense, 
had  very  little  to  do  with  these  movements  and  conflicts ;  the 
impulse  was  supposed  to  be  religion  because  religion  dwells 
in  the  most  interior  region  of  a  man's  soul.  But  the  crav- 
ing for  freedom  also  proceeds  from  an  ulterior  place;  and 
so  does  the  lust  for  tyranny.  Propinquity  was  mistaken 
for  identity,  and  anything  which  was  felt  but  could  not  be 
reasoned  about  assumed  a  religious  aspect  to  the  subject 
of  it,  and  all  the  artillery  of  Heaven  and  Hell,  and  the  vo- 
cabulary thereof,  were  pressed  into  service  to  champion  it. 
But  New  England  had  to  be  peopled,  and  this  was  the 
way  to  people  it.  The  dissenters  perceived  that,  though 
they  might  think  as  they  pleased  in  England,  they  could 
not  combine  this  privilege  with  keeping  clear  of  the  fagot 
or  the  gibbet;  and  though  martyrdom  is  honorable,  and 
perhaps  gratifying  to  one's  vanity,  it  can  be  overdone. 


46  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

They  came  to  the  conclusion,  accordingly,  that  practical 
common  sense  demanded  their  expatriation;  and  some  of 
them  humbly  petitioned  her  Majesty  to  be  allowed  to  take 
themselves  off.  The  Queen  did  not  show  herself  wholly- 
agreeable  to  this  project;  womanlike,  and  queenlike,  she 
wanted  to  convince  them  even  more  than  to  be  rid  of  them; 
or  if  they  must  be  got  rid  of,  she  preferred  to  dispose  of  them 
herself  in  the  manner  prescribed  for  stubborn  heretics.  But 
the  lady  was  getting  in  years,  and  was  not  so  ardently  loved 
as  she  had  been ;  and  her  activity  against  the  heretics  could 
not  keep  pace  with  her  animosity.  She  had  succeeded  in 
many  things,  and  her  reign  was  accounted  glorious;  but 
she  had  won  no  glory  by  the  Puritans  and  Separatists,  and 
her  campaign  against  them  had  not  succeeded.  They  were 
stronger  than  ever,  and  were  to  grow  stronger  yet.  It  was 
remembered,  too,  by  her  servants,  that,  when  she  was  dead, 
some  one  might  ascend  the  throne  who  was  less  averse  to 
nonconformity  than  she  had  been ;  and  then  those  who  had 
persecuted  might  suffer  persecution  in  their  turn.  So  al- 
though the  prayer  of  the  would-be  colonists  was  not  granted, 
the  severity  against  them  was  relaxed;  and  as  Elizabeth's 
last  breath  rattled  in  her  throat,  the  mourners  had  one  ear 
cocked  toward  the  window,  to  hear  in  what  sort  of  a  voice 
James  was  speaking. 

Their  fears  had  been  groundless.  The  new  king  spoke 
Latin,  and  "peppered  the  Puritans  soundly."  The  walls  of 
Hampton  Court  resounded  with  his  shrill  determination  to 
tolerate  none  of  their  nonsense ;  and  he  declared  to  the 
assembled  prelates,  who  were  dissolving  in  tears  of  joy,  that 
bishops  were  the  most  trustworthy  legs  a  monarch  could 
walk  on.  The  dissenters,  who  had  hoped  much,  were  dis- 
appointed in  proportion;  but  they  were  hardened  into  an 
opposition  sterner  than  they  had  ever  felt  before.  They 
must  help  themselves,  since  no  man  would  help  them;  and 
why  not— since  they  had  God  on  their  side?  They  controlled 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  made  themselves  felt  there,  till 


THE   FREIGHT   OF   THE   MAYFLOWER  47 

James  declared  that  he  preferred  a  hermitage  to  ruling  such 
a  pack  of  malcontents.  The  clergy  renewed  their  persecu- 
tions ;  the  government  of  England  was  a  despotism  of  the 
strictest  kind;  and  the  fire  which  had  been  repressed  in 
Puritan  bosoms  began  to  emit  sullen  sparks  through  their 
eyes  and  lips. 

A  group  of  them  in  the  north  of  England  established  a 
church,  and  called  upon  all  whom  it  might  concern  to  shake 
off  anti-Christian  bondage.  John  Robinson  and  "William 
Brewster  gave  it  their  support,  and  their  meetings  were 
made  interesting  by  the  spies  of  the  government.  Finally 
they  were  driven  to  attempt  an  escape  to  Holland ;  and, 
after  one  miscarriage,  they  succeeded  in  getting  off  from 
the  coast  of  Lincolnshire  in  the  spring  of  1608,  and  were 
transported  to  Amsterdam.  TJiey  could  but  tarry  there; 
their  only  country  now  was  Heaven ;  meanwhile  they  were 
wandering  Pilgrims  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  as  their  Lord 
had  been  before  them.  From  Amsterdam  they  presently 
removed  to  Leyden,  where  they  conducted  themselves  with 
such  propriety  as  to  win  the  encomiums  of  the  natives.  But 
their  holy  prosperity  did  not  make  them  happy,  or  enable 
them  to  be  on  comfortable  terms  with  the  Dutch  language ; 
they  could  not  get  elbow-room,  or  feel  that  they  were  doing 
themselves  justice ;  and  as  the  rumors  of  a  fertile  wilderness 
overseas  came  to  their  ears,  they  began  to  contemplate  the 
expediency  of  betaking  themselves  thither.  It  was  now  the 
year  1617;  and  negotiations  were  entered  into  with  the  Lon- 
don Company  to  proceed  under  their  charter. 

The  London  Company  were  disposed  to  consider  the  prop- 
osition favorably,  but  the  affair  dragged,  and  when  it  was 
brought  before  the  government  it  was  quashed  by  Bacon, 
who  opined  that  the  coat  of  Christ  must  be  seamless,  and 
that  even  in  a  remote  wilderness  heretics  must  not  be  per- 
mitted to  rend  it.  The  Pilgrims  might  have  replied  that  if 
a  coat  is  already  torn,  it  profits  not  to  declare  it  whole ;  but 
they  were  not  students  of  repartee,  and  merely  relinquished 


48  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

efforts  to  secure  support  in  that  direction.  They  must  go 
into  exile  without  official  sanction,  that  was  all.  The  king's 
law  enjoined,  to  be  sure,  that  if  any  dissenters  were  discov- 
ered abroad  they  were  straightway  to  be  sent  to  England 
for  discipline ;  but  inasmuch  as  the  threat  of  exile  was,  at 
the  same  time,  held  over  the  same  dissenters  at  home,  it 
would  seem  a  saving  of  trouble  all  round  to  go  abroad  and 
trust  to  God.  "If  they  mean  to  wrong  us,"  they  aptly  re- 
marked, "a  royal  seal,  though  it  were  as  broad  as  the  house 
floor,  would  not  protect  us."  A  suggestion  that  the  Dutch- 
men fit  them  out  for  their  voyage,  and  share  their  profits, 
fell  through  on  the  question  of  protection  against  other  na- 
tions ;  and  when  they  had  prepared  their  minds  to  make  the 
venture  without  any  protection  at  all,  it  turned  out  that  there 
was  not  capital  enough  hi  the  community  to  pay  for  trans- 
port. Within  three  years,  however,  this  difficulty  was  over- 
come, and  in  July  of  1620  two  ships  were  hired — the  "Speed- 
well" and  the  "Mayflower" — and  the  progenitors  of  religious 
and  civil  liberty  in  America  were  ready  to  set  forth. 

There  was  not  accommodation  for  them  all  on  the  two 
vessels,  the  one  of  sixty  tons,  the  other  of  thrice  as  many; 
so  a  division  was  made,  Robinson  remaining  in  Leyden  with 
one  party,  until  means  could  be  had  to  bring  them  over;  and 
Brewster  accompanying  the  emigrants,  supported  by  John 
Carver  and  Miles  Standish.  Robinson,  one  of  the  finest  and 
purest  spirits  of  the  time,  died  while  waiting  to  join  his 
friends ;  but  most  of  the  others  were  brought  over  in  due 
season. 

The  hymns  of  praise  and  hope  which  were  uplifted  on 
the  shores  of  Delft  Haven,  in  the  hour  of  farewell  between 
those  who  went  and  those  who  stayed,  though  the  faith 
which  inspired  them  was  stanch,  and  the  voices  which 
chanted  them  musical  and  sweet,  could  not  restrain  the 
tears  that  flowed  at  the  severing  of  ties  which  had  been 
welded  by  exile,  hardship,  and  persecution  for  conscience* 
sake;  nor  were  the  two  "feasts"  which  comforted  the  bellies 


THE   FREIGHT   OF   THE   MAYFLOWER  49 

of  the  departing  ones  able  to  console  their  hearts.  Tt  is  dif- 
ferent with  trips  across  the  Atlantic  nowadays :  and  differ- 
ent, likewise,  are  the  motives  which  prompt  them. 

The  "Speedwell"  turned  back  at  Plymouth,  England, 
and  the  "Mayflower"  went  on  alone,  with  her  company  of 
one  hundred  and  two,  including  women,  some  of  whom 
were  soon  to  be  mothers.  The  Atlantic,  though  a  good  friend 
of  theirs,  was  rough  and  boisterous  in  its  manners,  and  tossed 
them  on  their  way  rudely ;  in  that  li ttle  cabin  harrowing  dis- 
comfort must  have  been  undergone,  and  Christian  forbear- 
ance sorely  tried.  The  pitching  and  tossing  lasted  more 
than  two  months,  from  the  6th  of  September  till  the  7th  of 
December,  when  they  sighted — not  the  Bay  of  New  York, 
as  they  had  intended,  but  the  snow-covered  sand  mounds 
of  Cape  -Cod.  It  was  at  best  an  inhospitable  coast,  and  the 
time  of  their  visit  could  not  have  been  worse  chosen. 

But  indeed  they  were  to  be  tested  to  the  utmost ;  their 
experiences  during  that  winter  would  have  discouraged  oak 
and  iron ;  but  it  had  no  such  effect  upon  these  English  men 
and  women  of  flesh  and  blood.  The  New  England  winter 
climate  has  its  reputation  still ;  but  these  people  were  not  fit 
for  the  encounter.  They  had  been  living  in  the  moist  mild- 
ness of  Holland  for  thirteen  years,  and  for  more  than  sixty 
days  had  been  penned  in  that  stifling  "Mayflower"  cabin, 
seasick,  bruised  and  sleepless.  It  sleeted,  snowed,  rained 
and  froze,  and  they  could  find  no  place  to  get  ashore  on ; 
their  pinnace  got  stove,  and  the  icy  waves  wet  them  to  the 
marrow.  Standish  and  some  others  made  explorations  on 
land ;  but  found  nothing  better  than  some  baskets  of  maize 
and  a  number  of  Indian  graves  buried  in  the  snow-drifts. 
At  last  they  stumbled  upon  a  little  harbor,  upon  which 
abutted  a  hollow  between  low  hills,  with  an  icebound  stream 
descending  through  it  to  the  sea.  They  must  make  shift 
with  that  or  perish.  It  was  the  21st  of  December. 

That  date  is  inscribed  on  the  front  page  of  our  history, 
and  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  and  their  wives  and  daughters  are 
U.S.— 3  VOL.  I. 


50  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES 

celebrated  persons,  though  they  were  only  a  lot  of  English 
farmers  in  exile  for  heresy.  But  no  dreams  of  renown  visited 
them  then ;  they  had  nothing  to  uphold  them  but  their  amaz- 
ing faith.  "What  that  faith  must  have  been  their  conduct 
demonstrates;  but  it  is  difficult  to  comprehend  such  a  spirit; 
we  remember  all  the  persecutions,  all  the  energy  of  new 
convictions,  and  still  it  seems  miraculous.  Liberty  to  think 
as  they  pleased,  and  to  act  upon  their  belief :  that  was  all 
they  had  to  fight  with.  It  seems  very  thin  armor,  an  in- 
effective sword :  but  what  a  victory  they  won ! 

Before  they  disembarked,  a  meeting  was  held  in  the  cabin 
for  the  transaction  of  certain  business.  Since  then,  when- 
ever a  handful  of  Yankees  have  been  gathered  together,  it 
has  been  their  instinct  to  organize  and  pass  resolutions.  It 
is  the  instinct  of  order  and  self-government,  the  putting  of 
each  man  in  his  proper  place,  and  assigning  to  him  his  func- 
tion. This  meeting  of  the  Pilgrims  was  the  prototype,  and 
the  resolutions  they  passed  constitute  the  model  upon  which 
our  commonwealth  is  based.  They  promised  one  another, 
in  the  presence  of  God,  equal  laws  and  fidelity  to  the  general 
good :  the  principles  of  a  free  democracy. 

They  disembarked  on  the  flat  bowlder  known  as  Ply- 
mouth Rock  and  set  to  work  to  make  their  home.  With 
the  snow  under  their  feet,  the  dark,  naked  woods  hemming 
them  in,  and  concealing  they  knew  not  what  savage  perils ; 
with  the  bitter  waves  flinging  frozen  spray  along  the  shore, 
and  immitigable  clouds  lowering  above  them — memory  may 
have  drawn  a  picture  of  the  quiet  English  vales  in  which 
they  were  born,  or  of  the  hazy  Dutch  levels,  with  the  wind- 
mills swinging  their  arms  slumberously  above  the  still  canals, 
and  the  clean  streets  and  gabled  f  agades  of  the  prosperous 
Holland  town  which  had  sheltered  and  befriended  them. 
They  thought  of  faces  they  loved  and  would  see  no  more, 
and  of  the  secure  and  tranquil  lives  they  might  have  led, 
but  for  that  tooth  of  conscience  at  their  hearts,  which  would 
give  them  peace  only  at  the  cost  of  almost  all  that  humanity 


2 

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H 


THE  FREIGHT  OF  THE  MAYFLOWER  51 

holds  dear.  Did  any  of  them  wish  they  had  not  come?  did 
any  doubt  in  his  or  her  heart  whether  a  cold  abstraction  wag 
worth  adopting  in  lieu  of  the  great,  warm,  kindly  world? 
Verily,  not  one ! 

They  got  to  work  at  their  home-making  without  delay; 
but  all  were  ill,  and  many  were  dying.  That  winter  they 
put  up  with  much  labor  a  few  log  huts;  but  their  chief  in- 
dustry was  the  digging  of  clams  and  of  graves.  Half  of 
their  number  were  buried  before  the  summer,  and  there  was 
not  food  enough  for  the  rest  to  eat.  John  Carver,  who  had 
been  elected  governor  at  landing,  died  in  April,  having  al- 
ready lost  his  son.  But  those  who  did  survive  their  first 
year  lived  long;  it  is  wonder  that  they  ever  died  at  all,  who 
could  survive  such  an  experience. 

Spring  came,  and  with  it  a  visitor.  It  was  in  March — 
not  a  salubrious  month  in  New  England ;  but  the  trees  were 
beginning  to  put  out  brown  buds  with  green  or  red  tips,  and 
grass  and  shrubs  were  sprouting  in  sheltered  places,  though 
snow  still  lay  hi  spots  where  sunshine  could  not  fall.  The 
trailing  arbutus  could  be  found  here  and  there,  with  a  per- 
fume that  all  the  cruelty  of  winter  seemed  to  have  made 
only  more  sweet.  Birds  were  singing,  too,  and  the  settlers 
had  listened  to  them  with  joy;  they  had  gone  near  to  forget 
that  God  had  made  birds.  On  some  days,  from  the  south, 
came  the  breathing  of  soft,  fragrant  airs;  and  there  were 
breadths  of  blue  in  the  sky  that  looked  as  if  so  fresh  and 
tender  a  hue  must  have  been  just  created. 

The  men,  in  thick  jerkins,  heavy  boots,  and  sugarloaf 
hats,  were  busy  about  the  clearing;  some,  like  Miles  Stand- 
ish,  wore  a  steel  plate  over  their  breasts,  and  kept  their 
matchlocks  within  reach,  for  though  a  pestilence  had  ex- 
terminated the  local  Indians  before  they  came,  and,  with 
the  exception  of  one  momentary  skirmish,  in  which  no  harm 
was  done,  nothing  had  been  seen  or  heard  of  the  red  men — 
still  it  was  known  that  Indians  existed,  and  it  was  taken 
for  granted  that  they  would  be  hostile.  Meanwhile  the 


52  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

women,  in  homespun  frocks  and  jackets,  with  kerchiefs 
round  their  shoulders,  and  faces  in  which  some  trace  of  the 
English  ruddiness  had  begun  to  return,  sat  spinning  in  the 
doorways  of  the  huts,  keeping  an  eye  on  the  kettles  of  In- 
dian meal.  The  morning  sunlight  fell  upon  a  scene  which, 
for  the  first  time,  seemed  homelike :  not  like  the  lost  homes 
in  England,  but  a  place  people  could  live  human  lives  in, 
and  grow  fond  of.  The  hope  of  spring  was  with  them. 

All  at  once,  down  the  forest  glade,  treading  noiselessly 
on  moccasined  feet,  came  a  tall,  wild,  unfamiliar  figure, 
with  feathers  in  his  black  hair,  and  black  eyes  gleaming 
above  his  high  cheekbones.  An  Indian,  at  last!  He  had 
come  so  silently  that  he  had  emerged  from  the  shadow  of 
the  forest  and  was  almost  amid  them  before  he  was  seen. 
Some  of  the  settlers,  perhaps,  felt  a  momentary  tightening 
round  the  heart ;  for  though  we  are  always  in  the  hollow 
of  God's  hand,  there  are  times  when  we  are  surprised  into 
f orgetf ulness  of  that  security,  and  are  concerned  about  carnal 
perils.  Captain  Standish,  who  had  taken  a  flying  shot  at 
some  of  these  heathen  four  or  five  months  ago,  caught  up 
a  loaded  musket  leaning  against  the  corner  of  a  hut,  and 
stood  on  his  guard,  doubting  that  more  of  the  savages  were 
lurking  behind  the  trees.  He  had  even  thus  early  in  Ameri- 
can history  come  to  the  view  long  afterward  formulated  in 
the  epigram  that  the  only  good  Indians  are  the  dead  ones. 

But  the  keen,  spare  savage  made  no  hostile  demonstra- 
tion; he  paused  before  the  captain,  with  the  dignity  of  his 
race,  and  held  out  his  empty  hands.  And  then,  to  the  vast 
astonishment  of  Standish  and  of  the  others  who  had  gath- 
ered to  his  support,  he  opened  his  mouth  and  spoke  English : 
"Welcome,  Englishmen!"  said  he.  They  must  have  fan- 
cied, for  an  instant,  that  the  Lord  had  wrought  a  special 
miracle  for  them,  in  bestowing  upon  this  native  of  the  prime- 
val forest  the  gift  of  tongues. 

There  was,  however,  nothing  miraculous  about  Samoset, 
who  had  picked  up  his  linguistic  accomplishment,  such  as 


THE   FREIGHT   OF  THE   MAYFLOWER  53 

it  was,  from  a  fellow  savage  who  had  been  kidnapped  and 
taken  to  England,  whom  he  afterward  introduced  to  the 
colony,  where  he  made  himself  useful.  Samoset's  present 
business  was  as  embassador  from  the  great  chief  and 
sachem,  Massasoit,  lord  of  everything  thereabout,  who 
sent  friendly  greetings,  and  would  be  pleased  to  confer 
with  the  new  comers,  at  their  convenience,  and  arrange 
an  alliance. 

These  were  good  words,  and  they  must  have  taken  a 
weight  from  every  heart  there ;  not  only  the  dread  of  im- 
mediate attack,  but  the  omnipresent  and  abiding  anxiety 
that  the  time  would  come  when  they  would  have  to  fight 
for  their  lives,  and  defend  the  persecuted  church  of  the  Lord 
against  foes  who  knew  nothing  of  conformist  or  nonconform- 
ist, but  who  were  as  proficient  as  Queen  Mary  herself  in  the 
use  of  fire  and  torture.  These  misgivings  might  now  be 
dismissed ;  if  the  ruler  of  so  many  tribes  was  willing  to  stand 
their  friend,  who  should  harm  them?  So  they  all  gathered 
round  Samoset  on  that  sunny  spring  morning;  the  women 
observing  curiously  and  in  silence  his  strange  aspect  and 
gestures,  and  occasionally  exchanging  glances  with  one  an- 
other at  some  turn  of  the  talk ;  while  the  sturdy  Miles,  and 
Governor  Carver,  pale  with  illness  which  within  a  month 
reunited  him  with  the  son  he  had  loved,  and  Elder  Brew- 
ster,  with  his  serious  mien,  and  Bradford,  who  was  to  suc- 
ceed Carver,  with  his  strong,  authoritative  features  and 
thoughtful  forehead ; — these  and  more  than  a  score  more  of 
the  brethren  stood  eying  their  visitor,  questioning  him  ear- 
nestly and  trying  to  make  out  his  meaning  from  his  imper- 
fect English  gruntings.  And  they  spoke  one  to  another  of 
the  action  that  should  be  taken  on  his  message,  or  com- 
mented with  pious  exclamations  on  the  mercy  of  the  Lord 
in  thus  raising  up  for  them  protectors  even  in  the  wilder- 
ness. Meanwhile  a. chipmunk  flitted  along  the  bole  of  a 
fallen  tree,  a  thrush  chirped  in  the  brake,  a  deer,  passing 
airy-footed  across  an  opening  in  the  forest,  looked  an  instant 


54  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

and  then  turned  and  plunged  fleetly  away  amid  the  boughs  5 
and  a  lean-bellied  wolf,  prospecting  for  himself  and  his 
friends,  stuck  his  sinister  snout  through  a  clump  of  under- 
brush, and  curled  his  lips  above  the  long  row  of  his  white 
teeth  in  an  ugly  grin.  This  friendship  boded  no  good  to 
him. 

The  coming  of  Samoset  was  followed  after  a  while  by 
the  introduction  of  Squanto,  the  worthy  savage  who  had 
enjoyed  the  refining  influences  of  distant  England,  whose 
services  as  interpreter  were  of  much  value  in  that  juncture ; 
and  after  a  short  time  Massasoit  himself  accepted  the  set- 
lers'  invitation  to  become  their  guest  during  the  making  of 
the  treaty.  He  was  received  with  becoming  honor;  the 
diplomatists  proceeded  at  once  to  business,  and  before  twi- 
light the  state  paper  had  been  drawn  up,  signed  and  sealed. 
Its  provisions  ran  that  both  parties  were  to  abstain  from 
harming  each  other,  were  to  observe  an  offensive  and  de- 
fensive alliance,  and  to  deliver  up  offenders.  These  terms 
were  religiously  kept  for  half  a  century ;  by  which  time  the 
colonists  were  able  to  take  care  of  themselves.  Its  good 
effects  were  illustrated  in  the  case  of  the  chief  Canonicus, 
who  was  disposed  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  the  Englishmen, 
and  sent  them,  as  a  symbol  of  his  attitude,  a  rattlesnake's 
skin  wrapped  round  a  sheaf  of  arrows.  Bradford,  to  indi- 
cate that  he  also  understood  the  language  of  emblems,  sent 
the  skin  back  stuffed  with  powder  and  bullets.  Canonicus 
seems  to  have  fancied  that  these  substances  were  capable 
of  destroying  him  spontaneously,  and  returned  them  with 
pacific  assurances.  Such  weapons,  combined  with  the  alii- 
ance,  were  too  much  for  him.  Canonicus  was  chief  of  the 
Narragansetts ;  Massasoit,  of  the  Wampanoags.  In  1676 
the  son  of  Massasoit,  for  some  fancied  slight,  made  war 
upon  the  settlers,  and  the  Narragansetts  helped  him ;  in  this 
war,  known  as  King  Philip's,  the  settlers  suffered  severely, 
though  they  were  victorious.  But  had  it  come  during  the 
early  years  of  their  sojourn,  not  one  of  them  would  have 


THE   FREIGHT   OF   THE   MAYFLOWER 


survived,  and  New  England  might  never  have  become  what 
she  is  now. 

Meantime  the  Pilgrims,  pilgrims  no  longer,  settled  down 
to  make  the  wilderness  blossom  as  the  rose.  At  their  first 
landing  they  had  agreed,  like  the  colonists  of  Virginia,  to 
own  their  land  and  work  it  in  common ;  but  they  were  much 
quicker  than  the  Jamestown  folk  to  perceive  the  inexpedi- 
ency of  this  plan,  and  reformed  it  by  giving  each  man  or 
family  a  private  plot  of  ground.  Agriculture  then  developed 
so  rapidly  that  corn  enough  was  raised  to  supply  the  Indians 
as  well  as  the  English ;  and  the  importation  of  neat  cattle 
increased  the  home  look  as  well  as  the  prosperity  of  the 
farms.  There  was  also  a  valuable  trade  in  furs,  which  stim- 
ulated an  abortive  attempt  at  rivalry.  None  could  compete 
with  the  Pilgrims  on  their  own  ground ;  for  were  they  not 
growing  up  with  the  country,  and  the  Lord — was  He  not 
with  them?  More  troublesome  than  this  effort  of  "Weston 
was  the  obstruction  of  the  Company  in  England,  and  its 
usurious  practices;  the  colonists  finally  bought  them  out, 
and  relied  henceforth  wholly  on  themselves,  with  the  best 
results.  As  years  went  by  their  numbers  increased,  though 
but  slowly.  They  did  not  invite  the  co-operation  of  persons 
not  of  their  way  of  thinking,  and  the  world  was  never  over- 
supplied  with  Separatists.  On  the  other  hand,  they  were 
active  and  full  of  enterprise,  and  sent  out  branches  in  all 
directions,  which  shared  the  vitality  of  the  parent  stock. 
Every  man  of  them  was  trained  to  self-government,  and 
where  he  went  order  and  equity  accompanied  him.  A  purer 
democracy  could  not  be  framed ;  for  years  the  elections  were 
made  by  the  entire  body  of  the  assembled  citizens ;  His  Dread 
Majesty,  King  James,  never  sent  them  his  royal  Charter, 
but  the  charter  provided  by  their  own  love  of  justice  and 
solid  good  sense  served  them  far  better.  Their  governors 
were  responsible  directly  to  the  people,  and  were  further 
restrained  by  a  council  of  seven  members.  This  political 
basis  is  that  upon  which  our  present  form  of  government 


56  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

rests;  but  it  is  strange  to  see  what  Daedalian  complications, 
and  wheels  within  wheels,  we  have  contrived  to  work  into 
the  superstructure.  A  modern  ward  heeler  in  New  York 
could  have  taken  up  the  whole  frame  of  government  in 
Seventeenth  Century  New  England  by  the  butt  end,  and 
cracked  it  like  a  whip — provided  of  course  the  Pilgrim 
fathers  had  allowed  him  to  attend  the  primaries. 

But  it  is  more  probable  that  the  ward  heeler  would  have 
found  himself  promptly  in  the  presence  of  one  of  those  ter- 
rific magistrates  whose  grim  decrees  gave  New  England 
naughty  children  the  nightmare  a  century  after  the  stern- 
browed  promulgators  of  them  were  dust.  The  early  laws 
against  crime  hi  New  England  were  Revere,  though  death 
was  seldom  or  never  inflicted  save  for  murder.  But  more 
irksome  to  one  used  to  the  lax  habits  of  to-day  would  have 
been  the  punctilious  rigidity  with  which  they  guarded  the 
personal  bearing,  speech,  and  dress  of  the  members  of  their 
community.  Yet  we  may  thank  them  for  having  done  so; 
it  was  a  wise  precaution ;  they  knew  the  frailties  of  the  flesh, 
and  how  easily  license  takes  an  ell  if  an  inch  be  given  it. 
Nothing  less  iron  than  was  their  self-restraint  could  have 
provided  material  stanch  enough  to  build  up  the  framework 
of  our  nation.  One  might  not  have  enjoyed  living  with 
them;  but  we  may  be  heartily  glad  that  they  lived;  and 
we  should  be  the  better  off  if  more  of  their  stamp  were 
alive  still. 

But  these  iron  people  had  their  tender  and  sentimental 
side  as  well,  and  the  self-command  which  they  habitually 
exercised  made  the  softening,  when  it  came,  the  more  beau- 
tiful. One  of  the  love  romances  of  this  little  colony  has 
come  down  to  us,  and  may  be  taken  as  the  substantial  truth; 
it  has  entered  into  our  literature  and  poetry,  and  touches  us 
more  nearly  even  than  the  tale  of  Pocahontas.  Its  telling 
by  our  most  popular  poet  has  brought  it  to  the  knowledge 
of  a  greater  circle  of  readers  than  it  could  otherwise  have 
reached;  but  the  elaboration  of  his  treatment  could  add 


THE   FREIGHT   OF  THE   MAYFLOWER  57 

nothing  to  the  human  charm  of  it,  or  sharpen  our  concep- 
tion of  the  leading  characters  in  the  drama.  Miles  Standish 
had  been  a  soldier  in  the  Netherlands  before  joining  the  Pil- 
grims, and  to  him  they  gave  the  military  guardianship  of 
the  colony,  with  the  title  of  captain.  He  was  then  about 
thirty-six  years  of  age,  a  bluff,  straightforward  soldier,  whom 
a  life  of  hardship  had  made  older  than  his  years.  He  had 
known  little  of  women's  society,  but  during  the  long  voyage 
he  came  to  love  Priscilla  Mullens,  and  when  the  spring  came 
to  the  survivors  at  Plymouth,  he  wished  to  marry  her.  But 
he  would  not  trust,  as  Othello  did,  to  the  simple  art  of  a  sol- 
dier to  woo  her;  and  Priscilla  was  probably  no  Desdemona. 
But  there  was  a  youth  among  the  colonists,  just  come  of 
age,  whom  Standish  had  liked  and  befriended,  and  who, 
though  a  cooper  and  ship-carpenter  by  trade,  was  gifted 
with  what  seemed  to  Standish  especial  graces  of  person  and 
speech.  Alden  had  not  been  one  of  the  original  pilgrims; 
he  had  been  hired  to  repair  the  "Mayflower"  while  she  lay 
at  Southampton,  and  decided  to  sail  on  her  when  she  sailed; 
perhaps  with  the  hope  of  making  his  fortune  in  the  new 
world,  perhaps  because  he  wished  to  go  where  Priscilla  went. 
She  was  a  girl  whom  any  man  might  rejoice  to  make  his 
wife ;  vigorous  and  wholesome  as  well  as  comely,  and  en- 
dowed with  a  strong  character,  sweetened  by  a  touch  of 
humor.  John  had  never  spoken  to  her  of  his  love,  any  more 
than  Miles  had ;  whether  Priscilla's  clear  eyes  had  divined 
it,  we  know  not ;  but  it  is  likely  that  she  saw  through  the 
cooper  and  the  soldier  both. 

The  honest  soldier  was  a  fool,  and  saw  nothing  but  Pris- 
cilla, and  felt  nothing  but  his  love  for  her.  He  took  John 
Alden  by  the  arm,  and,  leading  him  apart  into  the  forest, 
proposed  to  him  to  go  to  young  Mistress  Mullens  and  ask 
her  if  she  would  become  the  wife  of  Captain  Standish.  Al- 
den was  honest,  too;  but  he  was  dominated  by  his  older 
friend,  and  lacked  the  courage  to  tell  him  that  he  had  hoped 
for  Priscilla  for  himself ;  he  let  the  critical  moment  for  this 


58  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

explanation  pass,  and  then  there  was  nothing  for  it  but  to 
accept  the  Captain's  commission.  We  can  imagine  how  this 
situation  would  be  handled  by  the  analytic  novelists  of  our 
day;  how  they  would  spread  Alden's  heart  and  conscience 
out  on  paper,  and  dry  them,  and  pick  them  to  pieces.  The 
young  fellow  certainly  had  a  hard  thing  to  do ;  he  must  tread 
down  his  own  passion,  and  win  the  girl  for  his  rival  into  the 
bargain.  To  her  he  went,  and  spoke.  But  the  only  way 
he  could  spur  himself  to  eloquence  was  to  imagine  that  he 
was  Standish,  and  then  woo  her  as  he  would  have  done  had 
Standish  been  he. 

Maidens  of  rounded  nature,  like  Priscilla,  pay  less  atten- 
tion to  what  a  man  says  than  to  the  tones  of  his  voice,  the 
look  in  his  eyes,  and  his  unconscious  movements.  As  Alden 
warmed  to  his  work,  she  glanced  at  him  occasionally,  and 
not  only  wished  that  Heaven  had  made  her  such  a  man,  but 
decided  that  it  had.  So,  when  the  youth  had  finished  off 
an  ardent  peroration,  in  which  the  Captain  was  made  to 
appear  in  a  guise  of  heroic  gallantry  that  did  not  suit  him 
in  the  least,  but  which  was  the  best  John  could  do  for  him : 
there  was  a  pause,  while  the  vicarious  wooer  wiped  his 
brow,  and  felt  very  miserable,  remembering  that  if  she 
yielded,  it  would  be  to  Miles  and  not  to  him.  She  divined 
what  was  in  his  mind,  and  sent  him  to  Heaven  with  one  of 
the  womanliest  and  loveliest  things  that  ever  woman  said 
to  man:  "Why  don't  you  speak  for  yourself,  John?"  she 
asked,  gazing  straight  at  him,  with  a  quiver  of  her  lips  that 
was  half  humor  and  half  the  promise  of  tears. 

John  still  had  before  him  a  bad  quarter  of  an  hour  with 
the  Captain ;  it  was  as  hard  to  make  him  understand  that 
he  had  not  played  the  traitor  to  him  as  it  had  been  to  per- 
suade Priscilla  to  do  what  she  had  not  done;  but  the  affair 
ended  without  a  tragedy,  which  would  have  spoiled  it.  Cap- 
tain Standish,  when  Priscilla  married,  went  to  live  in  Dux- 
bury;  and  a  year  or  two  later  worked  off  his  spleen  by 
slaying  the  Indian  rascals  who  were  plotting  to  murder  the 


THE   FREIGHT   OF   THE   MAYFLOWER  59 

Weston  settlers  at  "Weymouth.  He  and  his  men  did  not 
wait  for  the  savages  to  strike  the  first  blow;  they  made  no 
pretense  of  exhausting  all  the  resources  of  diplomacy  before 
proceeding  to  extremities.  They  walked  up  to  the  enemy, 
suddenly  seized  them  by  the  throat,  and  drove  the  knives 
which  the  Indians  themselves  wore  through  their  false 
hearts.  There  was  no  more  trouble  from  Indians  in  that 
region  for  a  long  time;  and  Captain  Standish's  feelings  were 
greatly  relieved.  As  for  John  and  Priscilla,  they  lived  long 
and  prospered,  John  attaining  the  age  of  eighty-seven,  which 
indicates  domestic  felicity.  They  had  issue,  and  their  de- 
scendants live  among  us  to  this  day  in  comfort  and  honor. 
King  James,  like  other  spiteful  and  weak  men,  had  a  long 
memory,  and  amid  the  many  things  that  engaged  his  atten- 
tion he  did  not  forget  the  colonists  of  Plymouth,  who  had 
exiled  themselves  without  a  charter  from  him.  In  the  same 
year  which  witnessed  their  disembarkation  at  Plymouth 
Rock,  he  incorporated  a  company  consisting  of  friends  of 
his  own,  and  gave  them  a  tract  of  country  between  the 
fortieth  and  the  forty-eighth  parallels  of  north  latitude,  which 
of  course  included  the  Plymouth  colony.  In  addition  to  all 
other  possible  rights  and  privileges,  it  had  the  monopoly  of 
the  fisheries  of  the  coast,  and  it  was  from  this  that  revenue 
was  most  certainly  expected,  since  it  was  proposed  to  lay  a 
tax  on  all  tonnage  engaged  in  it.  All  the  new  company  had 
to  do  was  to  grant  charters  to  all  who  might  apply,  and  reap 
the  profits.  But  the  scheme  was  fated  to  miscarry,  because 
the  pretense  of  colonization  behind  it  was  impotent,  and  the 
true  object  in  view  was  the  old  one  of  getting  everything 
that  could  be  secured  out  of  the  country,  and  putting  noth- 
ing into  it.  The  fisheries  monopoly  was  powerfully  opposed 
in  Parliament  and  finally  defeated;  small  sporadic  settle- 
ments, with  no  sound  principle  or  purpose  within  them,  ap- 
peared and  disappeared  along  the  coast  from  Massachusetts 
to  the  northern  borders  of  Maine.  One  grant  conflicted  with 
another,  titles  were  in  dispute,  and  lawsuits  were  rife.  The 


king  sanctioned  whatever  injustice  or  restriction  his  com- 
pany proposed,  but  his  decrees,  many  of  them  illegal,  were 
ineffective,  and  produced  only  confusion.  Agriculture  was 
hardly  attempted  in  any  of  the  little  settlements  authorized 
by  the  company,  and  the  only  trade  pursued  was  in  furs  and 
fishes.  The  rights  of  the  Indians  were  wholly  disregarded, 
and  the  domain  of  the  French  at  the  north  was  infringed 
upon.  All  this  while  the  Pilgrims  continued  their  industries 
and  maintained  then-  democracy,  undisturbed  by  the  feeble 
machinations  of  the  king;  and  in  1625  the  death  of  the  lat- 
ter temporarily  cleared  the  air.  Charles  affixed  his  seal  to 
the  famous  Massachusetts  Charter  four  years  later;  and 
though  Gorges  and  some  others  continued  to  harass  New 
England  for  some  time  longer,  the  plan  of  colonizing  by 
fisheries  was  hopelessly  discredited,  and  the  development 
of  civil  and  religious  liberties  among  the  serious  colonists 
was  assured. 

The  experiments  thus  far  made  in  dealing  with  the  new 
country  had  had  a  significant  result.  The  Plymouth  colony, 
going  out  with  neither  charter  nor  patronage,  and  with  the 
purpose  not  of  finding  gold  or  making  fortunes,  but  of  estab- 
lishing a  home  wherein  to  dwell  in  perpetuity — which  was 
handicapped  by  the  abject  poverty  of  its  members,  and  by 
the  severities  of  a  climate  till  then  unknown — this  enterprise 
was  found  to  hold  the  elements  of  success  from  the  start, 
and  it  steadily  increased  in  power  and  influence.  It  suffered 
from  time  to  time  from  the  tyranny  of  royal  governors  and 
the  ignorance  or  malice  of  absentee  statesmanship;  but  noth- 
ing could  extinguish  or  corrupt  it;  on  the  contrary,  it  went 
"slowly  broadening  down,  from  precedent  to  precedent," 
until,  when  the  moment  of  supreme  trial  came  to  the 
Thirteen  Colonies,  the  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims  and 
the  Puritans,  and  the  men  who  had  absorbed  their  ideas, 
put  New  England  in  the  van  of  patriotism  and  progress. 
It  is  a  noble  record,  and  a  pregnant  example  to  aU  friends 
of  freedom. 


THE   FREIGHT   OF   THE   MAYFLOWER  6l 

In  suggestive  contrast  with  this  was  the  Jamestown  en- 
terprise. As  we  have  seen,  this  colony  was  saved  from 
almost  immediate  extinction  solely  by  the  genius  and  energy 
of  one  man,  whom  his  fellow  members  had  at  first  tried  to 
exclude  altogether  from  their  councils  and  companionship. 
Belonging  to  a  class  socially  higher  and  presumably  more 
intelligent  than  the  Pilgrims,  and  continually  furnished  with 
supplies  from  the  Company  in  England,  they  were  unable 
during  twelve  years  to  make  any  independent  stand  against 
disaster.  In  a  climate  which  was  as  salubrious  as  that  of 
New  England  was  rigorous,  and  with  a  soil  as  fertile  as  any 
hi  the  world,  they  dwindled  and  starved,  and  their  dearest 
wish  was  to  return  to  England.  They  were  saved  at  last 
(as  we  shall  presently  see)  by  two  things;  first,  by  the  dis- 
covery of  the  value  of  tobacco  as  an  export,  and  of  its  use- 
fulness as  a  currency  for  the  internal  trade  of  the  country; 
and  secondly,  and  much  more,  by  the  Charter  of  1618,  which 
gave  the  people  the  privilege  of  helping  to  make  their  own 
laws.  That  year  marked  the  beginning  of  civil  liberty  in 
America ;  but  what  it  had  taken  the  Jamestown  colonists 
twelve  weary  and  disastrous  years  to  attain,  was  claimed 
by  the  pious  farmers  of  Plymouth  before  ever  they  set  foot 
on  Forefather's  Rock.  "Willingness  to  labor,  zeal  for  the 
common  welfare,  indifference  to  wealth,  independence,  moral 
and  religious  integrity  and  fervor — these  were  some  of  the 
traits  and  virtues  whose  cultivation  made  the  Pilgrims  pros- 
perous, and  the  neglect  or  lack  of  which  discomfited  the 
Virginia  settlers.  The  latter,  man  for  man,  were  by  nature 
as  capable  as  the  former  of  profiting  by  right  conditions  and 
training;  and  as  soon  as  they  obtained  them  they  showed 
favorable  results.  But  in  the  meantime  the  lesson  was 
driven  home  that  a  virgin  country  cannot  be  subdued  and 
rendered  productive  by  selfish  and  unjust  procedure:  a 
homely  and  hackneyed  lesson,  but  one  which  can  never 
be  too  often  quoted,  since  each  fresh  generation  must  buy 
its  own  experience,  and  it  often  happens  that  a  situation 


62  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

essentially  old  assumes  a  novel  aspect,  owing  to  external 
modifications  of  time  and  place. 

The  Plymouth  Colony,  after  remaining  long  separate 
and  self-supporting,  consented  to  a  union  with  the  larger 
and  richer  settlements  of  Massachusetts.  The  charter  se- 
cured by  the  latter,  and  the  manner  in  which  it  was  admin- 
istered, were  alike  remarkable.  The  granting  of  it  was 
facilitated  by  the  threatened  encroachments  of  other  than 
Englishmen  upon  the  New  England  domain ;  it  was  repre- 
sented to  Charles  that  it  was  necessary  to  be  beforehand 
with  these  gentry,  if  they  were  to  be  restrained.  Charles  was 
on  the  verge  of  that  rupture  with  law  and  order  in  his  own 
realm  which  culminated  in  his  dismissal  of  Parliament,  and 
for  ten  years  attempting  the  task  of  governing  England  with- 
out it.  He  approved  the  charter  without  adequately  realiz- 
ing the  full  breadth  and  pregnancy  of  its  provisions,  which, 
in  effect,  secured  civil  and  ecclesiastical  emancipation  to  the 
settlers  under  it.  But  what  was  quite  as  important  was  the 
consideration  that  it  went  into  effect  at  a  time  incomparably 
favorable  to  its  success.  The  Plymouth  colony  had  proved 
that  a  godly  and  self -denying  community  could  nourish  in 
the  wilderness,  in  the  enjoyment  of  spiritual  blessings  unat- 
tainable at  home.  The  power  of  English  prelacy  did  not 
extend  beyond  the  borders  of  England:  idolatrous  cere- 
monies could  be  eschewed  in  Massachusetts  without  fear 
of  persecution.  Thousands  of  Puritans  were  prepared  to 
give  up  their  homes  for  the  sake  of  liberty,  and  only  waited 
assurance  that  it  could  be  obtained.  The  condition  of  so- 
ciety and  education  in  England  was  vicious  and  corrupt; 
and  though  it  might  become  brave  and  true  men  to  suffer 
persecution  in  witness  of  their  faith,  yet  there  was  danger 
that  their  children  might  be  induced  to  fall  away  from  the 
truth,  after  they  were  gone.  Martyrdom  was  well,  but  it 
must  not  be  allowed  to  such  an  extreme  as  to  extirpate  the 
proclaimers  of  the  truth.  Many  of  those  who  were  prepared 
to  take  advantage  of  the  charter  were  of  the  best  stock  in 


THE   FREIGHT   OF   THE   MAYFLOWER  63 

England,  men  of  brains  and  substance  as  well  as  piety; 
graduates  of  the  Universities,  country  gentlemen,  men  of 
the  world  and  of  affairs.  A  colony  made  of  such  elements 
would  be  a  new  thing  in  the  earth ;  it  would  comprise  all 
that  was  strong  and  wise  in  human  society,  and  would  ex- 
clude every  germ  of  weakness  and  frailty.  The  sealing  of 
the  charter  was  like  the  touching  of  the  electric  button  which, 
in  our  day,  sets  in  motion  for  the  first  time  a  vast  mechan- 
ical system,  or  fires  a  simultaneous  salute  of  guns  in  a  hun- 
dred cities.  King  Charles  I.,  who  was  to  lose  his  anointed 
head  on  the  block  because  he  tried  to  crush  popular  liberty 
in  England,  was  the  immediate  human  instrument  of  giving 
the  purest  form  of  such  liberty  to  English  exiles  beyond 
the  sea. 

The  charter  constituted  an  organization  called  the  Gov- 
ernor and  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  England. 
The  governor,  annually  elected  by  the  members,  was  assisted 
by  a  deputy  and  assistants,  and  was  to  call  a  business  meet- 
ing monthly  or  oftener,  and  in  addition  was  to  preside  four 
times  a  year  at  an  assembly  of  the  whole  body  of  the  free- 
men, to  make  laws  and  determine  appointments.  Freedom 
of  Puritan  worship  was  assured,  in  part  explicitly,  in  part 
tacitly.  The  king  had  no  direct  relation  with  their  proceed- 
ings, beyond  the  general  and  vague  claims  of  royal  preroga- 
tive ;  and  it  was  an  open  question  whether  Parliament  had 
the  power  to  override  the  authority  of  the  patentees. 

It  will  be  seen  that  this  charter  was  in  no  respect  inhar- 
monious with  the  system  of  self-government  which  had 
grown  up  among  the  Plymouth  colonists;  it  was  a  more 
complete  and  definite  formulation  of  principles  which  must 
ever  be  supported  by  men  who  wish  so  to  live  as  to  obtain 
the  highest  social  and  religious  welfare.  It  was  the  stately 
flowering  of  a  seed  already  obscurely  planted,  and  though  it 
was  to  be  now  and  again  checked  in  its  development,  would 
finally  bear  the  fruit  of  the  Tree  of  Life. 


CHAPTER    THIRD 

THE    SPIRIT    OF    THE    PURITANS 

;MONG  the  characteristic  figures  of  this  age, 
none  shows  stronger  lineaments  than  that  of 
John  Endicott.  He  was,  at  the  time  of  his 
coming  to  Massachusetts,  not  yet  forty  years 
of  age;  he  remained  there  till  his  death  at 
six-and-seventy.  He  was  repeatedly  elected 
governor,  and  died  in  the  governor's  chair. 
In  1645  he  was  made  Major-general  of  the  Colonial  troops; 
nine  years  before  he  had  headed  a  campaign  against  the 
Pequot  Indians.  His  character  illustrated  the  full  meas- 
ure of  Puritan  sternness;  he  was  an  inflexible  persecutor 
of  the  Quakers,  and  was  instrumental  in  causing  four  of 
them  to  be  executed  in  Boston.  In  his  career  is  found 
no  feeble  passage;  he  was  always  Endicott.  He  was  a 
man  grown  before  he  attained,  under  the  ministrations  of 
Samuel  Skelton  of  Cambridge,  in  England,  the  religious 
awakening  which  placed  him  in  the  forefront  of  the  Puri- 
tan dissenters  of  his  time;  and  it  may  be  surmised  that 
the  force  of  nature  which  gave  him  his  self-command  would, 
otherwise  directed,  have  opened  still  wider  the  gates  of  license 
and  recklessness  which  marked  the  conduct  of  many  in  thai 
period.  But,  having  taken  his  course,  he  disciplined  himself 
to  the  strictest  observances,  and  required  them  of  others. 
He  was  a  man  of  perfect  moral  and  physical  courage,  austere 
and  choleric;  yet  there  was  in  him  a  certain  cheerfulness 
and  kindliness,  like  sunshine  touching  the  ruggedness  of  a 
(64) 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   PURITANS  65 

granite  bowlder.  An  old  portrait  of  him  presents  a  full  and 
ruddy  countenance,  without  a  beard,  and  with  large  eyes 
which  gaze  sternly  out  upon  the  beholder.  "When  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Company  was  formed,  it  contained  many  men  of 
pith  and  mark,  such  as  Saltonstall,  Bellingham,  Eaton,  and 
others;  but,  by  common  consent,  Endicott  was  chosen  as 
the  first  governor  of  the  new  realm,  and  he  sailed  for  Bos- 
ton harbor  in  June,  1628.  He  took  with  him  his  wife  and 
children,  and  a  small  following  of  fit  companions,  and  landed 
in  September. 

Many  tales  are  told  of  the  doings  of  Endicott  in  Massa- 
chusetts. Like  those  of  all  strong  men,  his  deeds  were  often 
embellished  with  legendary  ornaments,  but  the  exaggera- 
tions, if  such  there  be,  are  colored  by  a  true  conception  of 
his  character.  At  the  time  of  his  advent,  there  was  at 
Merrymount,  or  Mount  Walloston,  now  within  the  bound- 
aries of  Quincy,  near  Boston,  a  colony  which  was  a  survival 
of  the  one  founded  by  Thomas  "Weston,  through  the  agency 
of  Thomas  Morton,  an  English  lawyer,  who  was  more  than 
once  brought  to  book  for  unpuritanical  conduct.  Here  was 
collected,  in  1628,  a  number  of  waifs  and  strays,  and  other 
persons  not  in  sympathy  with  the  rigorous  habits  of  the 
Puritans,  whose  proceedings  were  of  a  more  or  less  licen- 
tious and  unbecoming  quality,  calculated  to  disturb  the 
order  and  propriety  of  the  realm.  Endicott,  on  being  ap- 
prised of  their  behavior,  went  thither  with  some  armed 
men,  and  put  a  summary  end  to  the  colony;  Morton  was 
sent  back  to  England,  and  the  "revelries"  which  he  had 
countenanced  or  promoted  were  seen  no  more  in  Massachu- 
setts. The  era  for  gayeties  had  not  yet  come  in  the  new 
world.  Endicott  would  not  be  satisfied  with  crushing  out 
evil;  he  would  also  nip  in  the  bud  all  such  lightsome  and 
frivolous  conduct  as  might  lead  those  who  indulged  in  it 
to  forget  the  dangers  and  difficulties  attending  the  planting 
of  the  reformed  faith  in  the  wilderness. 

More  impressive  yet  is  the  story  of  how  he  resented  the 


66  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

project  of  Laud,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  the  most 
zealous  supporter  of  the  follies  and  iniquities  of  King  Charles, 
to  force  the  ritual  of  the  orthodox  church  upon  the  people 
of  Massachusetts.  When  Endicott  received  from  Governor 
"Winthrop  the  letter  containing  this  news,  whose  purport,  if 
carried  out,  would  undo  all  that  the  Puritans  had  most  pas- 
sionately labored  to  establish ;  for  which  they  had  given  up 
their  homes  and  friends,  and  to  the  safe-guarding  of  which 
they  had  pledged  their  lives,  their  fortunes,  and  their  sacred 
honor: — he  was  deeply  stirred,  and  resolved  that  a  public 
demonstration  should  be  made  of  the  irrevocable  opposition 
of  the  people  to  the  measure.  He  was  at  that  time  captain 
of  the  trained  band  of  Salem,  which  was  used  to  meet  for 
drill  in  the  square  of  the  little  settlement.  It  had  for  a 
long  time  disquieted  Endicott  and  other  Puritan  leaders 
that  the  banner  of  England,  under  which,  as  English- 
men, they  must  live  and  fight,  should  bear  upon  it  the 
sign  of  the  red  cross,  which  was  the  very  emblem  of  the 
popery  which  their  souls  abhorred.  It  had  seemed  to  them 
almost  a  sin  to  tolerate  it;  and  yet  it  was  treason  to  take 
any  liberties  with  the  national  ensign.  But  Endicott  was 
now  in  a  mood  to  encounter  any  risk ;  since,  if  Laud's  will 
were  enforced,  there  would  be  little  left  in  New  England 
worth  fighting  for. 

Accordingly,  on  the  next  training  day,  when  the  able 
men  of  Salem  were  drawn  up  in  their  breastplates  and  head- 
pieces, with  the  Red-Cross  flag  floating  over  them,  and  the 
rest  of  the  townspeople,  with  here  and  there  an  Indian 
among  them,  looking  on:  Endicott,  in  his  armor,  with  his 
sword  upon  his  thigh,  spoke  in  passionate  terms  to  the  as- 
sembly of  the  matter  which  weighed  upon  his  heart.  And 
then,  as  a  symbol  of  the  Puritan  protest,  and  a  pledge  of  his 
vital  sincerity,  he  took  the  banner  in  his  hand,  and,  draw 
ing  his  sword,  cut  the  cross  out  of  its  folds.  The  unparal- 
leled audacity  and  rashness  of  this  act,  which  might  have 
brought  upon  New  England  a  revocation  of  her  charter  and 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   PURITANS  67 

destruction  of  the  liberties  which  already  exceeded  those 
vouchsafed  to  Englishmen  at  home,  alarmed  Winthrop,  and 
sent  a  thrill  throughout  the  colony.  But  the  deed  was  too 
public  to  be  disavowed,  and  Endicott  and  they  must  abide 
the  consequences.  Information  of  the  outrage  was  carried 
to  Charles;  but  he  was  fortunately  too  much  preoccupied 
at  the  moment  with  the  struggle  for  his  crown  at  home  to 
be  able  to  take  proper  action  upon  the  slight  put  upon  his 
authority  in  Salem.  No  punishment  was  inflicted  upon  the 
bold  soldier,  who  thus  anticipated  by  nearly  a-  century  and 
a  half  the  step  finally  taken  by  the  patriots  of  1776. 

To  return,  however,  to  Endicott's  arrival  in  Boston  (as 
it  was  afterward  named,  in  honor  of  that  Lincolnshire  Bos- 
ton from  which  many  of  the  emigrants  came).  There  were 
already  a  few  settlers  there,  who  had  come  in  from  various 
motives,  and  one  or  two  of  whom  were  inclined  to  assert 
squatter  sovereignty.  The  rights  of  the  Indians  were  re- 
spected, in  accordance  with  the  injunctions  of  the  Com- 
pany; and  Sagamore  John,  who  asserted  his  rights  as 
chief  over  the  neck  of  land  and  the  hilly  promontory  of  the 
present  city,  was  so  courteously  entreated  that  he  permitted 
the  erection  of  a  house  there,  and  the  laying  out  of  streets. 
While  these  preparations  were  going  forward,  the  bulk  of 
the  first  emigration,  numbering  two  hundred  persons,  with 
servants,  cattle,  arms  and  other  provisions,  entered  the  har- 
bor. They  had  had  a  prosperous  and  pious  voyage,  being 
much  refreshed  with  religious  services  performed  daily ;  and 
it  may  be  recorded  as  perhaps  a  unique  fact  in  the  annals 
of  ocean  navigation  that  the  ship  captain  and  the  sailors 
punctuated  the  setting  of  the  morning  and  noon  watches 
with  the  singing  of  psalms  and  with  prayer.  This  sounds 
apocryphal;  but  it  so  stated  hi  the  narrative  of  "New  Eng- 
land's Plantation,"  written  and  circulated  by  Mr.  Higgin- 
son  soon  after  their  arrival;  and  it  must  be  remembered 
that  the  ship  carried  a  supply  of  personages  of  the  clerical 
profession  out  of  proportion  to  the  number  of  the  rest  of 


68  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

the  passengers.  But  palliate  the  marvel  how  we  may,  we 
cannot  help  smiling  at  it,  and  at  the  same  time  regretting 
that  the  Puritans  themselves  probably  had  no  realization 
of  the  miracle  which  was  transacting  under  their  noses. 
They  doubtless  regarded  it  as  a  matter  of  course,  instead 
of  a  thing  to  occur  but  once  in  a  precession  of  the  equinoxes. 
And  now,  it  might  be  supposed,  began  the  building  of 
the  city :  the  clearing  of  the  forest,  the  chopping  of  wood, 
the  sawing  of  beams,  the  digging  of  foundations,  the  ring- 
ing of  hammers,  and  the  uprising  on  every  side  of  the 
dwellings  of  civilization.  And  certainly  steps  were  taken 
to  provide  the  company  with  shelter  from  the  present  sum- 
mer heats  and  from  the  snows  of  winter  to  come ;  and  they 
had  brought  with  them  artisans  skilled  to  do  the  necessary 
work.  But  though  the  Puritans  never  could  be  called  re- 
miss in  respect  of  making  due  provision  for  the  necessities 
of  this  life,  yet  all  was  done  with  a  view  to  the  conditions 
of  the  life  to  come;  and  in  the  annals  of  the  time  we  read 
more  of  the  prayers  and  fasts,  the  choosing  of  ministers, 
and  the  promotion  and  practice  of  godliness  in  general, 
than  we  do  of  any  temporal  matters.  Men  there  were,  like 
Endicott,  who  united  the  strictest  religious  zeal  with  all 
manner  of  practical  abilities;  but  there  were  many,  too, 
who  had  been  no  more  accustomed  to  shift  for  themselves 
than  were  the  gentlemen  of  Jamestown.  They  differed 
from  the  latter,  however,  in  an  enlightened  conception  of 
the  work  before  them,  in  enthusiasm  for  the  commonweal, 
and  in  determination  to  familiarize  themselves  as  soon  as 
possible  with  the  requirements  of  their  situation.  The  town 
did  not  come  up  in  a  night,  like  the  shanty  cities  of  our 
western  pioneers;  nor  did  it  contain  gambling  houses  and 
liquor  saloons  as  its  chief  public  buildings.  These  men  were 
building  a  social  structure  meant  to  last  for*  all  time,  and 
houses  in  which  they  hoped  to  pass  the  years  of  their  natural 
lives;  and  they  proceeded  with  what  we  would  now  consider 
unwarrantable  deliberation  and  with  none  too  much  techni- 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE    PURITANS  69 

cal  skill.  They  sought  neither  wealth  nor  the  luxuries  it 
brings;  but,  rather,  welcomed  hardship,  as  apt  to  chasten 
the  spirit;  and  never  felt  themselves  so  thoroughly  about 
their  proper  business  as  when  they  were  assembled  in  the 
foursquare  little  log  hut  which  they  had  consecrated  as  the 
house  of  God.  Boston  and  Salem  grew :  they  were  larger 
and  more  commodious  at  the  end  of  the  twelvemonth  than 
they  had  been  at  its  beginning;  but  more  cannot  be  said. 
Sickness,  misfortune,  and  scarcity  handicapped  the  settlers; 
many  died ;  the  yield  of  their  crops  was  wholly  inadequate 
to  their  needs ;  servants  whose  work  was  indispensable  could 
not  be  paid,  and  were  set  free  to  work  for  themselves,  and 
the  outlook  was  in  all  respects  gloomy.  If  the  enterprise 
was  to  be  saved,  the  Lord  must  speedily  send  succor. 

The  Lord  did  not  forget  His  people.  A  great  relief  was 
already  preparing  for  them,  and  the  way  of  it  was  thus. — 

The  record  of  the  former  chartered  companies  had  shown 
that  conducting  the  affairs  of  colonists  on  the  other  side  of 
the  ocean  was  attended  with  serious  difficulties  on  both  parts. 
The  colonists  could  not  make  their  needs  known  with  pre- 
cision enough,  or  in  season,  to  have  them  adequately  met ; 
and  the  governing  company  was  unable  to  get  a  close  knowl- 
edge of  its  business,  or  to  explain  and  enforce  its  require- 
ments. Furthermore,  there  was  liable  to  be  continual  vexa- 
tious interference  on  the  part  of  the  king  and  his  officers, 
detrimental  to  the  welfare  of  colonists  and  company  alike. 

The  men  who  constituted  the  Massachusetts  Company 
were  not  concerned  respecting  the  pecuniary  profits  of  the 
venture,  inasmuch  as  they  looked  only  for  the  treasures 
which  moth  nor  rust  can  corrupt;  their  "plantation"  was 
to  the  glory  of  God,  not  to  the  imbursement  of  man.  Nor 
were  they  anxious  to  impose  their  will  upon  the  emigrants, 
or  solicitous  lest  the  latter  should  act  unseemly ;  for  the  men 
who  were  there  were  of  the  same  character  and  aim  as  those 
who  were  in  England,  and  there  could  be  no  differences  be- 
tween them  beyond  such  as  might  legitimately  arise  as  to 


70  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  most  expedient  way  of  reaching  a  given  end.  But  the 
Company  could  easily  apprehend  that  the  king  and  his  min- 
isters might  meddle  with  then*  projects  and  bring  them  to 
naught;  and  since  those  affairs,  unlike  mercantile  ones,  were 
not  of  a  nature  to  admit  of  compromise,  they  earnestly  de- 
sired to  prevent  this  contingency. 

Debating  the  matter  among  themselves,  the  leaders  of 
the  organization  conceived  the  idea  of  establishing  the  head- 
quarters of  the  Company  in  the  midst  of  the  emigrants  in 
America :  of  becoming,  in  other  words,  emigrants  themselves, 
and  working  side  by  side  with  their  brethren  for  the  com- 
mon good.  This  plan  offered  manifest  attractions ;  it  would 
remove  them  from  unwelcome  propinquity  to  the  Court, 
would  be  of  great  assistance  to  the  work  to  do  which  the 
Company  was  formed,  would  give  them  the  satisfaction  of 
feeling  that  they  were  giving  their  hands  as  well  as  their 
hearts  to  the  service  of  God,  and,  not  least,  would  give  no- 
tice to  all  the  Puritans  in  England,  now  a  great  and  influ- 
ential body,  that  America  was  the  most  suitable  ground  for 
their  earthly  sojourning. 

These  considerations  determined  them;  and  it  remained 
only  to  put  the  plan  into  execution.  Twelve  men  of  wealth 
and  education,  eminent  among  whom  was  John  Winthrop, 
the  future  governor  of  the  little  commonwealth,  met  and 
exchanged  solemn  vows  that,  if  the  transference  could 
legally  be  accomplished,  they  would  personally  voyage  to 
New  England  and  take  up  their  permanent  residence  there. 
The  question  was  shortly  after  put  to  the  general  vote, 
and  unanimously  agreed  to;  a  commercial  corporation  (as 
ostensibly  the  Company  was)  created  itself  the  germ  of  an 
independent  commonwealth;  and  on  October  20th  John  Win- 
throp was  chosen  governor  for  the  ensuing  twelvemonth,- 
money  was  subscribed  to  defray  expenses;  as  speedily  as 
possible  ships  were  chartered  or  purchased;  the  numbers 
of  the  members  of  the  Company  were  increased,  and  their 
resources  augmented,  by  the  addition  of  many  outside  per- 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   PURITANS  71 

sons  in  harmony  with  the  movement,  and  willing  to  support 
it  with  their  fortunes  and  themselves;  and  by  the  early 
spring  of  1630  a  fleet  of  no  less  than  seventeen  ships,  accom- 
modating nearly  a  thousand  emigrants  representing  the  very 
best  blood  and  brain  of  England,  was  ready  to  sail. 

At  the  moment  of  departing,  there  was  a  quailing  of  the 
spirit  on  the  part  of  some  of  the  emigrants;  but  Winthrop 
comforted  them;  he  told  them  that  they  must  "keep  the 
unity  of  the  spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace";  that,  in  the  wil- 
derness, they  would  see  more  of  God  than'  they  could  in 
England;  and  that  their  plantation  should  be  of  such  a 
quality  as  that  the  founders  of  future  plantations  should 
pray  that  "The  Lord  make  it  likely  that  of  New  England." 
These  were  good  words.  Nevertheless,  there  were  not  a  few 
seceders,  and  it  was  not  till  the  year  had  advanced  that  the 
full  number  of  vessels  found  their  way  to  the  port  of  Boston. 
But  eleven  ships,  including  the  Arbella  which  bore  Win- 
throp, sailed  at  once,  with  seven  hundred  men  and  women, 
and  every  appliance  that  experience  and  forethought  could 
suggest  for  the  convenience  and  furtherance  of  life  in  a 
new  country.  Their  going  made  a  deep  impression  through- 
out England. 

And  well  it  might !  For  these  people  were  not  unknown 
and  rude,  like  the  Plymouth  Pilgrims ;  they  were  not  fiercely 
intolerant  fanatics,  whose  sincerity  might  be  respected,  but 
whose  company  must  be  irksome  to  all  less  extreme  than 
themselves.  They  were  of  gentle  blood  and  training;  per- 
sons whose  acquaintance  was  a  privilege ;  who  added  to  the 
richness  and  charm  of  social  life.  That  people  of  this  kind 
should  remove  themselves  to  the  wilderness  meant  much 
more,  to  the  average  mind,  than  that  religious  outcasts  like 
the  Pilgrims  should  do  so.  For  the  latter,  one  place  might 
be  as  good  as  another ;  but  that  the  others  should  give  up 
their  homes  and  traditions  for  the  hardships  and  isolation 
of  such  an  existence  seemed  incomprehensible;  and  when 
no  other  motive  could  be  found  than  that  which  they  pro- 


72  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

fessed — "the  honor  of  God" — grave  thoughts  could  not  but 
be  awakened.  The  sensation  was  somewhat  the  same  as 
if,  in  our  day,  a  hundred  thousand  of  the  most  favorably 
known  and  highly  endowed  persons  in  the  country  were 
to  remove  to  Chinese  Tartary  to  escape  from  the  corrup- 
tion and  frivolity  of  business  and  social  life,  and  to  create 
an  ideal  community  in  the  desert.  We  could  smile  at 
such  a  hegira  if  Tom,  Dick  and  Harry  were  concerned  in 
it;  but  if  the  men  and  women  of  light  and  leading  aban- 
don us,  the  implied  indictment  is  worth  heeding. 

The  personal  character  and  nature  of  "Winthrop  are  well 
known,  and  may  serve  as  a  type  for  the  milder  aspect  of 
his  companions.  He  was  of  a  gentle  and  conciliating  temper, 
affectionate,  and  prizing  the  affection  of  others.  There  was 
a  certain  sweetness  about  him,  a  tendency  to  mild  joyous- 
ness,  a  desire  to  harmonize  all  conflicts,  a  disposition  to  think 
good,  that  good  might  come  of  it.  He  was  indisposed  to 
violence  in  opinion  as  much  as  in  act;  he  believed  that  love 
was  the  fulfilling  of  the  law,  and  would  dissolve  opposition 
to  the  law,  if  it  were  allowed  time  and  opportunity.  His 
cultivated  intellect  recognized  a  certain  inevitablenees,  or 
preordained  growth  in  mortal  affairs,  which  made  him 
sympathetic  even  toward  those  who  differed  from  him,  for 
did  they  not  use  the  best  light  they  had?  He  conformed 
to  the  English  church,  and  yet  he  absented  himself  from 
England,  not  being  willing  to  condemn  the  orthodox  ritual, 
yet  f  eeling  that  the  Gospel  in  its  purity  could  be  more  in- 
timately enjoyed  in  America.  He  was  no  believer  in  the 
theory  of  democratic  equality ;  it  seemed  to  him  contrary  to 
natural  order;  there  were  degrees  and  gradations  in  all 
things,  men  included;  there  were  those  fitted  to  govern, 
and  those  fitted  to  serve;  power  should  be  in  the  hands 
of  the  few,  but  they  should  be  "the  wisest  of  the  best." 
He  had  no  doubts  as  to  the  obligations  of  loyalty  to  the 
King,  and  yet  he  gave  up  home  and  ease  to  live  where  the 
King  was  a  sentiment  rather  than  a  fact.  But  beneath  all 


THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   PURITANS  73 

this  engaging  softness  there  was  strength  in  "Winthrop;  the 
fiber  of  him  was  fine,  but  it  was  of  resolute  temper.  Sim- 
ple goodness  is  one  of  the  mightiest  of  powers,  and  he  was 
good  in  all  simplicity.  He  could  help  his  servants  in  the 
humblest  household  drudgery,  and  yet  preserve  the  dignity 
befitting  the  Governor  of  the  people.  He  was  not  a  man 
to  be  bullied  or  terrified,  but  his  wisdom  and  forbearance 
disarmed  an  enemy,  and  thus  removed  all  need  of  fighting 
him.  He  dominated  those  around  him  spontaneously  and 
involuntarily;  they,  as  it  were,  insisted  upon  being  led  by 
him,  and  commanded  him  to  exact  their  obedience.  His 
influence  was  purifying,  encouraging,  uplifting,  and  upon 
the  whole  conservative ;  had  he  lived  a  hundred  years  later, 
he  would  not  have  been  found  by  the  side  of  Adams,  Patrick 
Henry,  and  James  Otis.  Sympathy  and  courtesy  made  him 
seem  yielding;  yet,  like  a  tree  that  bends  to  the  breeze,  he 
still  maintained  his  place,  and  was  less  changeable  than 
many  whose  stubbornness  did  not  prevent  their  drifting. 
His  insight  and  intelligence  may  have  enabled  him  to  fore- 
see to  what  a  goal  the  New  England  settlers  were  bound ; 
but  though  he  would  have  sympathized  with  them,  he  would 
not  have  been  swayed  to  join  them.  As  it  was,  he  wrought 
only  good  to  them,  for  they  were  in  the  formative  stage, 
when  moderation  helps  instead  of  hindering.  He  mediated 
between  the  state  they  were  approaching,  and  that  from 
which  they  came,  and  he  died  before  the  need  of  alienat- 
ing himself  from  them  arrived.  His  resoluteness  was  shown 
in  his  resistance  to  Anne  Hutchinson  and  her  supporter,  Sir 
Harry  Vane,  who  professed  the  heresy  that  faith  absolved 
from  obedience  to  the  moral  law ;  they  were  forced  to  quit 
the  colony;  and  so  was  Roger  Williams,  as  lovely  as  and 
in  some  respects  a  loftier  character  than  "Winthrop.  In  re- 
viewing the  career  of  this  distinguished  and  engaging  man, 
we  are  surprised  that  he  should  have  found  it  on  his  con- 
science to  leave  England.  Endicott  was  born  to  subdue  the 
wilderness,  and  so  was  many  another  of  the  Puritans;  but 
U.S.— 4  VOL.  I. 


74  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

it  seems  as  if  "Winthrop  might  have  done  and  said  in  King 
Charles's  palace  all  that  he  did  and  said  in  Massachusetts, 
without  offense.  But  it  is  probable  that  his  moderation  ap- 
pears greater  in  the  primitive  environment  than  it  would 
have  done  in  the  civilized  one;  and  again,  the  impulse  to 
restrain  others  from  excess  may  have  made  him  incline  more 
than  he  would  otherwise  have  done  toward  the  other  side. 
_  But  tradition  has  too  much  disposed  us  to  think  of  the 
/  Puritans  as  of  men  who  had  thrown  aside  all  human  ten- 
derness and  sympathy,  and  were  sternly  and  gloomily  pre- 
occupied with  the  darker  features  of  religion  exclusively. 
Winthrop  corrects  this  judgment;  he  was  a  Puritan,  though 
he  was  sunny  and  gentle ;  and  there  were  many  others  who 
more  or  less  resembled  him.  The  reason  that  the  somber 
type  is  the  better  known  is  partly  because  of  its  greater  pict- 
uresqueness  and  singularity,  and  partly  because  the  early 
jfe  of  New  England  was  on  the  whole  militant  and  aggres- 
sive, and  therefore  brought  the  rigid  and  positive  qualities 
more  prominently  forward. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  piety  of  the  domi- 
nating powers  in  Massachusetts  during  the  first  years  of  the 
colony's  existence.  It  was  almost  a  mysticism.  That  inti- 
mate and  incommunicable  experience  which  is  sometimes 
called  "getting  religion"— the  Lord  knocking  at  the  door  of 
'  the  heart  and  being  admitted — was  made  the  condition  of 
admission  to  the  responsible  offices  of  government.  This 
was  to  make  God  the  ruler,  through  instruments  chosen 
by  Himself — theoretically  a  perfect  arrangement,  but  in 
practice  open  to  the  gravest  perils.  It  not  merely  paved 
the  way  to  imposture,  but  invited  it;  and  the  most  danger- 
ous imposture  is  that  which  imposes  on  the  impostor  him- 
self. It  created  an  oligarchy  of  the  most  insidious  and 
unassailable  type:  a  communion  of  earthly  "saints,"  who 
might  be,  and  occasionally  were,  satans  at  heart.  It  is 
essentially  at  variance  with  democracy,  which  it  regards 
as  a  surrender  to  the  selfish  license  of  the  lowest  range  of 


INDIANS  ATTACKING  NEW  ENGLAND  SETTLERS 


THE   SPIRIT   OF    THE   PURITANS  75 

mrregenerate  human  nature;  and  yet  it  is  incompatible 
with  hereditary  monarchy,  because  the  latter  is  based  on 
uninspired  or  mechanical  selection.  The  writings  of  Cotton 
Mather  exhibit  the  peculiarities  and  inconsistencies  of  Puri- 
tanism in  the  most  favorable  and  translucent  light,  for 
Mather  was  himself  wedded  to  them,  and  of  a  most  inex- 
haustible fertility  in  their  exposition. 

Winthrop  was  responsible  for  the  "Oath  of  Fidelity," 
which  required  its  taker  to  suffer  no  attempt  to  change  or 
alter  the  government  contrary  to  its  laws;  and  for  the  law 
excluding  from  the  freedom  of  the  body  politic  all  who  were 
not  members  of  its  church  communion.  The  people,  how- 
ever, stipulated  that  the  elections  should  be  annual,  and 
each  town  chose  two  representatives  to  attend  the  court  of 
assistants.  But  having  thus  asserted  their  privileges,  they 
forbore  to  interfere  with  the  judgment  of  their  leaders,  and 
maintained  them  in  office.  The  possible  hostility  of  Eng- 
land, the  strangeness  and  dangers  of  their  surroundings  in 
America,  and  the  appalling  prevalence  of  disease  and  mor- 
tality among  them,  possibly  drove  them  to  a  more  than 
normal  fervor  of .  piety.  Since  God  was  so  manifestly  their 
only  sword  and  shield,  and  was  reputed  to  be  so  terrible 
and  implacable  in  His  resentments,  it  behooved  them  to 
omit  no  means  of  conciliating  His  favor. 

Winthrop  found  anything  but  a  land  flowing  with  milk 
and  honey,  when  he  arrived  at  Salem,  where  the  ships  first 
touched.  As  when,  twenty  years  before,  Delaware  came  to 
Jamestown,  the  people  were  on  the  verge  of  starvation,  and 
it  was  necessary  to  send  a  vessel  back  to  England  for  sup- 
plies. There  were  acute  suffering  and  scarcity  all  along  the 
New  England  coast,  and  though  the  spirit  of  resignation 
was  there,  it  seemed  likely  that  there  would  be  soon  little 
flesh  left  through  which  to  manifest  it.  The  physical  con- 
ditions were  intolerable.  The  hovels  in  which  the  people 
were  living  were  wretched  structures  of  rough  logs,  roofed 
with  straw,  with  wooden  chimneys  and  narrow  and  dark- 


THE   SPIRIT   OF    THE   PURITANS  75 

nnregenerate  human  nature;  and  yet  it  is  incompatible 
with  hereditary  monarchy,  because  the  latter  is  based  on 
uninspired  or  mechanical  selection.  The  writings  of  Cotton 
Mather  exhibit  the  peculiarities  and  inconsistencies  of  Puri- 
tanism in  the  most  favorable  and  translucent  light,  for 
Mather  was  himself  wedded  to  them,  and  of  a  most  inex- 
haustible fertility  in  their  exposition. 

Winthrop  was  responsible  for  the  "Oath  of  Fidelity," 
which  required  its  taker  to  suffer  no  attempt  to  change  or 
alter  the  government  contrary  to  its  laws ;  and  for  the  law 
excluding  from  the  freedom  of  the  body  politic  all  who  were 
not  members  of  its  church  communion.  The  people,  how- 
ever, stipulated  that  the  elections  should  be  annual,  and 
each  town  chose  two  representatives  to  attend  the  court  of 
assistants.  But  having  thus  asserted  their  privileges,  they 
forbore  to  interfere  with  the  judgment  of  their  leaders,  and 
maintained  them  in  office.  The  possible  hostility  of  Eng- 
land, the  strangeness  and  dangers  of  their  surroundings  in 
America,  and  the  appalling  prevalence  of  disease  and  mor- 
tality among  them,  possibly  drove  them  to  a  more  than 
normal  fervor  of .  piety.  Since  God  was  so  manifestly  their 
only  sword  and  shield,  and  was  reputed  to  be  so  terrible 
and  implacable  in  His  resentments,  it  behooved  them  to 
omit  no  means  of  conciliating  His  favor. 

Winthrop  found  anything  but  a  land  flowing  with  milk 
and  honey,  when  he  arrived  at  Salem,  where  the  ships  first 
touched.  As  when,  twenty  years  before,  Delaware  came  to 
Jamestown,  the  people  were  on  the  verge  of  starvation,  and 
it  was  necessary  to  send  a  vessel  back  to  England  for  sup- 
plies. There  were  acute  suffering  and  scarcity  all  along  the 
New  England  coast,  and  though  the  spirit  of  resignation 
was  there,  it  seemed  likely  that  there  would  be  soon  little 
flesh  left  through  which  to  manifest  it.  The  physical  con- 
ditions were  intolerable.  The  hovels  in  which  the  people 
were  living  were  wretched  structures  of  rough  logs,  roofed 
with  straw,  with  wooden  chimneys  and  narrow  and  dark- 


76  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

some  interiors.  They  were  patched  with  bark  and  rags; 
many  were  glad  to  lodge  themselves  in  tents  devised  of 
fragments  of  drapery  hung  on  a  framework  of  boughs. 
The  settlement  was  in  that  transition  state  between  crude 
wilderness  and  pioneer  town,  when  the  appearance  is  most 
repulsive  and  disheartening.  There  is  no  order,  uniformity, 
or  intelligent  procedure.  There  is  a  clump  of  trees  of  the 
primeval  forest  here,  the  stumps  and  litter  of  a  half-made 
clearing  there,  yonder  a  patch  of  soil  newly  and  clumsily 
planted;  wigwams  and  huts  alternate  with  one  another; 
men  are  digging, '  hewing,  running  to  head  back  straying 
cattle,  toiling  in  with  fragments  of  game  on  their  shoulders ; 
yonder  a  grave  is  being  dug  in  the  root-encumbered  ground, 
and  hard  by  a  knot  of  mourners  are  preparing  the  corpse 
for  interment.  There  is  no  rest  or  comfort  anywhere  for 
eye  or  heart.  The  only  approximately  decent  dwelling  in 
Salem  at  this  time  was  that  of  John  Endicott.  Higginson 
was  dying  of  a  fever.  Lady  Arbella,  who  had  accompanied 
her  husband,  Isaac  Johnson,  had  been  ailing  on  the  voyage, 
and  lingered  here  but  a  little  while  before  finding  a  grave. 
In  a  few  months  two  hundred  persons  perished.  It  was  no 
place  for  weaklings — or  for  evil-doers  either;  among  the  ear- 
liest of  the  established  institutions  were  the  stocks  and  the 
whipping-post,  and  they  were  not  allowed  to  stand  idle, 

Winthrop  and  most  of  the  others  soon  moved  on  down 
the  coast  toward  Boston.  It  had  been  the  original  intention 
to  keep  the  emigrants  in  one  body,  but  that  was  found  im- 
practicable ;  they  were  forced  to  divide  up  into  small  parties, 
who  settled  where  they  best  could,  over  an  area  of  fifty  or  a 
hundred  miles.  Nantasket,~Watertown,  Charlestown,  Saugus, 
Lynn,  Maiden,  Roxbury,  all  had  their  handfuls  of  inhabi- 
tants. It  was  exile  within  exile ;  for  miles  meant  something 
in  these  times.  More  than  a  hundred  of  the  emigrants, 
cowed  by  the  prospect,  deserted  the  cause  and  returned  to 
England.  Yet  Winthrop  and  the  other  leaders  did  not  lose 
heart,  and  their  courage  and  tranquillity  strengthened  the 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   PURITANS  77 

others.  It  is  evidence  of  the  indomitable  spirit  of  these  peo- 
ple that  one  of  their  first  acts  was  to  observe  a  day  of  fast- 
ing and  prayer;  a  few  days  later  the  members  of  the  con- 
gregation met  and  chose  their  pastor,  John  "Wilson,  and 
organized  the  first  Church  of  Boston.  They  did  not  wait  to 
build  the  house  of  God,  but  met  beneath  the  trees,  or  gath- 
ered round  a  rock  which  might  serve  the  preacher  as  a 
pulpit.  There  was  simplicity  enough  to  satisfy  the  most 
conscientious.  ""We  here  enjoy  God  and  Jesus  Christ," 
wrote  Winthrop:  "I  do  not  repent  my  coming:  I  never 
had  more  content  of  mind." 

After  a  year  there  were  but  a  thousand  settlers  in  Massa- 
chusetts.    Among  them  was  Roger  Williams,  a  man  so  pure 
and  true  as  of  himself  to  hallow  the  colony ;  but  it  is  illus- 
trative of  the  intolerance  which  was  from  the  first  insepar- 
able from  Puritanism,  that  he  was  driven  away  because  he 
held  conscience  to  be  the  only  infallible  guide.     We  cannot 
blame  the  Puritans;  they  had. paid  a  high  price  for  their 
faith,  and  they  could  not  but  guard  it  jealously.      Their 
greatest  peril  seemed  to  them  to  be  dissension  or  disagree- 
ments on  points  of  belief;   except  they  held  together,  their 
whole  cause  was  lost.     Williams  was  no  less  an  exile  for 
conscience'  sake  than  they ;  but  as  he  persisted  in  having  a 
conscience  strictly  his  own,  instead  of  pooling  it  with  that 
of  the  church,  they  were  constrained  to  let  him  go.     They 
did  not  perceive,  then  or  afterward,  that  such  action  argued 
feeble-  faith.     They  could  not,  after  all,  quite  trust  God  to 
take  care   of    His  own ;    they  dared  not  believe  that  He 
could  reveal  Himself  to  others  as  well  as  to  them;  they 
feared  to  admit  that  they  could  have  less  than  the  whole 
truth   in  their   keeping.      So  they  banished,  whipped,  pil-^ 
loried,  and  finally  even  hanged  dissenters  from  their  dis-l 
sent.      We,  whose  religious  tolerance  is  perhaps  as  exces-f 
sive  as  theirs  was  deficient,  are  slow  to  excuse  them  for\ 
this;   but  they  believed  they  were  fighting  for  much  more  \ 
than  their   lives;    and   as   for   faith  in  God,   it  is  surely  ] 


78  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES 

no  worse  to  fall  into  error  regarding  it  than  to  dismiss  it 
altogether. 

In  a  community  where  the  integrity  of  the  church  was 
the  main  subject  of  concern,  it  could  not  be  long  before  re- 
ligious conservatism  would  be  reflected  in  the  political  field. 
Representative  government  was  conceded  in  theory ;  but  in 
practice,  "Winthrop  and  others  thought  that  it  would  be  bet- 
ter ignored;  the  people  could  not  easily  meet  for  delibera- 
tions, and  how  could  their  affairs  be  in  better  hands  than 
those  of  the  saints,  who  already  had  charge  of  them?  But 
the  people  declined  to  surrender  their  liberties;  there  should 
be  rotation  in  office;  voting  should  be  by  ballot  instead  of 
show  of  hands.  Taxation  was  restricted;  and  in  1635  there 
was  agitation  for  a  written  constitution;  and  the  relative 
authority  of  the  deputies  and  the  assistants  was  in  debate. 
Our  national  predisposition  to  "talk  politics"  had  already 
been  born. 

Among  these  early  inconsistencies  and  disagreements 
Roger  Williams  stood  out  as  the  sole  fearless  and  logical 
figure.  Consistency  and  bravery  were  far  from  being  his 
only  good  qualities;  in  drawing  his  portrait,  the  difficulty 
is  to  find  shadows  with  which  to  set  off  the  lights  of  his 
character.  The  Puritans  feared  the  world,  and  even  their 
own  constancy ;  Williams  feared  nothing ;  but  he  would  rev- 
erence and  obey  his  conscience  as  the  voice  of  God  in  his 
breast,  before  which  all  other  voices  must  be  hushed.  He 
was  not  only  in  advance  of  his  time :  he  was  abreast  of  any 
times ;  nothing  has  ever  been  added  to  or  detracted  from  his 
argument.  When  John  Adams  wrote  to  his  son,  John 
Quincy  Adams,  "Your  conscience  is  the  Minister  Plenipo- 
tentiary of  God  Almighty  placed  in  your  breast :  see  to  it 
that  this  minister  never  negotiates  in  vain,"  he  did  but 
attire  in  the  diplomatic  phraseology  which  came  naturally 
to  him  the  thought  which  Williams  had  avouched  and  lived 
more  than  a  century  before.  Though  absolutely  radical, 
Williams  was  never  an  extremist;  he  simply  went  to  the 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   PURITANS  79 

fountain-head  of  reason  and  truth,  and  let  the  living  waters 
flow  whither  they  might.  The  toleration  which  he  demanded 
he  always  gave ;  of  those  who  had  most  evilly  entreated  him 
he  said,  "I  did  ever  from  my  soul  honor  and  love  them,  even 
when  their  judgment  led  them  to  afflict  me."  His  long  life 
was  one  of  the  most  unalloyed  triumphs  of  unaided  truth 
and  charity  that  our  history  records ;  and  the  State  which  he 
founded  presented,  during  his  lifetime,  the  nearest  approach 
to  the  true  Utopia  which  has  thus  far  been  produced. 

Roger  "Williams  was  a  "Welshman,  born  in  1600,  and  dy- 
ing, in  the  community  which  he  had  created,  eighty-five 
years  later.  His  school  was  the  famous  Charterhouse ;  his 
University,  Cambridge;  and  he  took  orders  in  the  Church 
of  England.  But  the  protests  of  the  Puritans  came  to  his 
ears  before  he  was  well  installed;  and  he  examined  and 
meditated  upon  them  with  all  the  quiet  power  of  his  serene 
and  penetrating  mind.  It  was  not  long  before  he  saw  that 
truth  lay  with  the  dissenting  party ;  and,  like  Emerson  long 
afterward,  he  at  once  left  the  communion  in  which  he  had 
thought  to  spend  his  life.  He  came  to  Massachusetts  in 
1631,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  was  not  long  in  discovering  that 
he  was  more  Puritan  than  the  Puritans.  "When  differences 
arose,  he  departed  to  the  Plymouth  Colony,  and  there  abode 
for  several  useful  years. 

But  though  the  men  of  Boston  and  Salem  feared  him, 
they  loved  him  and  recognized  his  ability;  indeed,  they 
never  could  rid  themselves  of  an  uneasy  sense  that  in  all 
their  quarrels  it  was  he  who  had  the  best  of  the  argument ; 
they  were  often  reduced  to  pleading  necessity  or  expediency, 
when  he  replied  with  plain  truth.  He  responded  to  an  in- 
vitation to  return  to  Salem,  in  1633,  by  a  willing  acceptance; 
but  no  sooner  had  he  arrived  than  a  discussion  began  which 
continued  until  he  was  for  the  second  and  final  time  ban- 
ished in  1636.  The  main  bone  of  contention  was  the  right 
of  the  church  to  interfere  in  state  matters.  He  opposed  the- 
ocracy as  profaning  the  holy  peace  of  the  temple  with  the 


8o  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

warring  of  civil  parties.  The  Massachusetts  magistrates 
were  all  church  members,  which  "Williams  declared  to  be 
as  unreasonable  as  to  make  the  selection  of  a  pilot  or  a 
physician  depend  upon  his  proficiency  in  theology.  He 
would  not  admit  the  warrant  of  magistrates  to  compel  at- 
tendance at  public  worship;  it  was  a  violation  of  natural 
right,  and  an  incitement  to  hypocrisy.  "But  the  ship  must 
have  a  pilot,"  objected  the  magistrates.  "And  he  holds  her 
to  her  course  without  bringing  his  crew  to  prayer  in  irons," 
was  Williams's  rejoinder.  "We  must  protect  our  people 
from  corruption  and  punish  heresy,"  said  they.  "Con- 
science in  the  individual  can  never  become  public  property; 
and  you,  as  public  trustees,  can  own  no  spiritual  powers," 
answered  he.  "May  we  not  restrain  the  church  from  apos- 
tasy?" they  asked.  He  replied,  "No:  the  common  peace 
and  liberty  depend  upon  the  removal  of  the  yoke  of  soul- 
oppression." 

The  magistrates  were  perplexed,  and  doubtful  what  to 
do.  Laud  in  England  was  menacing  them  with  episcopacy, 
and  they,  as  a  preparation  for  resistance,  decreed  that  all 
freemen  must  take  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  Massachusetts 
instead  of  to  the  King.  "Williams,  of  course,  abhorred  epis- 
copacy as  much  as  they  did ;  but  he  would  not  concede  the 
right  to  impose  a  compulsory  oath.  A  deputation  of  minis- 
ters was  sent  to  Salem  to  argue  with  him :  he  responded  by 
counseling  them  to  admonish  the  magistrates  of  their  injus- 
tice. He  was  cited  to  appear  before  the  state  representa- 
tives to  recant ;  he  appeared,  but  only  to  affirm  that  he  was 
ready  to  accept  banishment  or  death  sooner  than  be  false 
to  his  convictions.  Sentence  of  banishment  was  thereupon 
passed  against  him,  but  he  was  allowed  till  the  ensuing 
spring  to  depart;  meanwhile,  however,  the  infection  of  his 
opinions  spreading  in  Salem,  a  warrant  was  sent  to  sum- 
mon him  to  embark  for  England ;  but  he,  anticipating  this 
step,  was  already  on  his  way  through  the  winter  woods 
southward. 


THE   SPIRIT    OF   THE   PURITANS  81 

The  pure  wine*  of  his  doctrine  was  too  potent  for  the 
iron-headed  Puritans.  But  it  was  their  fears  rather  than 
their  hearts  that  dismissed  him ;  those  who  best  knew  him 
praised  him  most  unreservedly;  and  even  Cotton  Mather 
admitted  that  he  seemed  "to  have  the  root  of  the  matter 
in  him." 

Williams's  journey  through  the  pathless  snows  and  frosts 
of  an  exceptionally  severe  winter  is  one  of  the  picturesque 
and  impressive  episodes  of  the  times.  During  more  than 
three  months  he  pursued  his  lonely  and  perilous  way ;  hol- 
low trees  were  a  welcome  shelter ;  he  lacked  fire,  food  and 
guides.  But  he  had  "always  pleaded  in  behalf  of  the  In- 
dians ;  he  had  on  one  occasion  denied  the  validity  of  a  royal 
grant  unless  it  were  countersigned  by  native  proprietors ;  and 
during  his  residence  in  Plymouth  he  had  learned  the  Indian 
language.  All  this  now  stood  him  in  good  stead.  The  man 
who  was  outcast  from  the  society  of  his  white  brethren,  be- 
cause his  soul  was  purer  and  stronger  than  theirs,  was 
received  and  ministered  unto  by  the  savages;  he  knew 
their  ways,  was  familiar  in  their  wigwams,  championed 
their  rights,  wrestled  lovingly  with  their  errors,  mediated 
in  their  quarrels,  and  was  idolized  by  them  as  was  no 
other  of  his  race.  Pokanoket,  Massasoit  and  Canonicus 
were  his  hosts  and  guardians  during  the  winter  and  spring; 
and  in  summer  he  descended  the  river  in  a  birch-bark  canoe 
to  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Providence,  so  named  by 
him  in  recognition  of  the  Divine  mercies;  and  there  he 
pitched  his  tent  beside  the  spring,  hoping  to  make  the  place 
"a  shelter  for  persons  distressed  for  conscience." 

His  desire  was  amply  fulfilled.  The  chiefs  of  the  Narra- 
gansetts  deeded  him  a  large  tract  of  land ;  oppressed  persons 
flocked  to  him  for  comfort  and  succor,  and  never  in  vain ;  a 
republic  grew  up  based  on  liberty  of  conscience,  and  the 
civil  rule  of  the  majority:  the  first  in  the  world.  Ortho- 
doxy and  heresy  were  on  the  same  footing  before  him ;  he 
trusted  truth  to  conquer  error  without  aid  of  force.  Though 


82  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STA/ES 

he  ultimately  withdrew  from  all  churches,  he  founded  the 
first  Baptist  church  in  the  new  world ;  he  twice  visited  Eng- 
land, and  obtained  a  charter  for  his  colony  in  1644.  Wil- 
liams from  first  to  last  sat  on  the  Opposition  Bench  of  life; 
and  we  say  of  him  that  he  was  hardly  used  by  those  who 
should  most  have  honored  him.  Yet  it  is  probable  that  he 
would  have  found  less  opportunity  to  do  good  at  either  an 
earlier  or  a  later  time.  Critics  so  keen  and  unrelenting  as 
he  never  find  favor  with  the  ruling  powers ;  he  would  have 
been  at  least  as  "impossible"  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  as 
he  was  in  the  Seventeenth;  and  we  would  have  had  no 
Rhode  Island  to  give  him.  "We  can  derive  more  benefit 
from  his  arraignment  of  society  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
ago  than  we  should  were  he  to  call  us  to  account  to-day, 
because  no  resentment  mingles  with  our  intellectual  appre- 
ciation :  our  withers  seem  to  be  unwrung.  The  crucifixions 
of  a  former  age  are  always  denounced  by  those  who,  if  the 
martyr  fell  into  their  hands,  would  be  the  first  to  nail  him 
to  the  cross. 

But  the  Puritanism  of  Williams,  and  that  of  those  who 
banished  him,  were  as  two  branches  proceeding  from  a  sin- 
gle stem;  then*  differences,  which  were  the  type  of  those 
that  created  two  parties  in  the  community,  were  the  in- 
evitable result  of  the  opposition  between  the  practical  and 
the  theoretic  temperaments.  This  opposition  is  organic;  it 
is  irreconcilable,  but  nevertheless  wholesome;  both  sides 
possess  versions  of  the  same  truth,  and  the  perfect  state 
arises  from  the  contribution  made  by  both  to  the  common 
good — not  from  their  amalgamation,  or  from  a  compromise 
between  them.  Williams's  community  was  successful,  but 
it  was  successful,  on  the  lines  he  laid  down,  only  during  its 
minority ;  as  its  population  increased,  civil  order  was  assured 
by  a  tacit  abatement  of  the  right  of  individual  independence, 
and  by  the  insensible  subordination  of  particular  to  general 
interests.  In  Massachusetts,  on  the  other  hand,  which  from 
the  first  inclined  to  the  practical  view — which  recognized 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   PURITANS  83 

the  dangers  surrounding  an  organization  weak  in  physical 
resources,  but  strong  in  spiritual  conviction,  and  which,  by 
reason  of  the  radical  nature  of  those  convictions,  was  spe- 
cially liable  to  interference  from  the  settled  power  of  ortho- 
doxy : — in  Massachusetts  there  was  a  diplomatic  tendency  in 
the  work  of  building  up  the  commonwealth.  The  integrity 
of  Williams's  logic  was  conceded,  but  to  follow  it  out  to 
its  legitimate  conclusions  was  deemed  inconsistent  with  the 
welfare  and  continuance  of  the  popular  institutions.  The 
condemnation  of  dissenters  from  dissent  sounded  unjust; 
but  it  was  the  alternative  to  the  more  far-reaching  injus- 
tice of  suffering  the  structure  which  had  been  erected  with 
such  pains  and  sacrifice  to  fall  to  pieces  just  when  it  was 
attaining  form  and  character.  The  time  for  universal  tol- 
eration might  come  later,  when  the  vigor  and  solidity  of  the 
nucleus  could  no  longer  be  vitiated  by  fanciful  and  transient 
vagaries.  The  right  of  private  judgment  carried  no  guar- 
antee comparable  with  that  which  attached  to  the  sober  and 
tested  convictions  of  the  harmonious  body  of  responsible 
citizens. 

When,  therefore,  the  young  Henry  Vane,  coming  to 
Boston  with  the  prestige  of  aristocratic  birth  and  the  repu- 
tation of  liberal  opinions,  was  elected  Governor  in  1635,  and 
presently  laid  down  the  principle  that  "Ishmael  shall  dwell 
in  the  presence  of  his  brethren,"  he  at  once  met  with  opposi- 
tion; and  he  and  Anne  Hutchinson,  and  other  visionaries 
and  enthusiasts,  were  made  to  feel  that  Boston  was  no  place 
for  them.  Yet  at  the  same  time  there  was  a  conflict  be- 
tween the  body  of  the  freemen  and  the  magistrates  as  to 
the  limits  and  embodiments  of  the  governing  power;  the 
magistrates  contended  that  there  were  manifest  practical 
advantages  in  life  appointments  to  office,  and  in  the  un- 
disturbed domination  of  men  of  approved  good  life  and  in- 
tellectual ability;  the  people  replied  that  all  that  might  be 
true,  but  they  would  still  insist  upon  electing  and  dismiss- 
ing whom  they  pleased.  Thus  was  inadvertently  demon- 


84  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES 

strated  the  invincible  security  of  democratic  principles;  the 
masses  are  always  willing  to  agree  that  the  best  shall  rule, 
but  insist  that  they,  the  multitude,  and  not  any  Star  Cham- 
ber, no  matter  how  impeccable,  shall  decide  who  the  best 
are.  Herein  alone  is  safety.  The  masses,  of  course,  are 
not  actuated  by  motives  higher  than  those  of  the  select 
few;  but  their  impartiality  cannot  but  be  greater,  because, 
assuming  that  each  voter  has  in  view  his  personal  welfare, 
their  ballots  must  insure  the  welfare  of  the  majority.  And 
if  the  welfare  of  the  majority  be  God's  will,  then  the  truth 
of  the  old  Latin  maxim,  Vox  Populi  vox  Dei,  is  vindicated 
without  any  recourse  to  mysticism.  The  only  genuine  Aris- 
tocracy, or  Rule  of  the  Best,  must  in  other  words  be  the 
creation  not  of  their  own  will  and  judgment,  but  of  those 
of  the  subjects  of  their  administration. 

The  political  experiments  and  vicissitudes  of  these  early 
times  are  of  vastly  greater  historical  importance  than  are 
such  external  episodes,  as,  for  example,  the  Pequot  war  in 
1637.  A  whole  tribe  was  exterminated,  and  thereby,  and 
still  more  by  the  heroic  action  of  "Williams  in  preventing,  by 
his  personal  intercession,  an  alliance  between  the  Pequots 
and  the  Narragansetts,  the  white  colonies  were  preserved. 
But  beyond  this,  the  affair  has  no  bearing  upon  the  develop- 
ment of  the  American  idea.  During  these  first  decades,  the 
most  profound  questions  of  national  statesmanship  were  dis- 
cussed in  the  assemblies  of  the  Massachusetts  Puritans,  with 
an  acumen  and  wisdom  which  have  never  been  surpassed. 
The  equity  and  solidity  of  most  of  their  conclusions  are  ex- 
traordinary ;  the  intellectual  ability  of  the  councilors  being 
purged  and  exalted  by  their  ardent  religious  faith.  The 
"Body  of  Liberties,"  written  out  in  1641  by  Nathaniel  Ward, 
handles  the  entire  subject  of  popular  government  in  a  mas- 
terly manner.  It  was  a  Counsel  of  Perfection  molded,  by 
understanding  of  the  prevailing  conditions,  into  practical 
form.  The  basis  of  its  provisions  was  the  primitive  one 
which  is  traced  back  to  the  time  when  the  Anglo-Saxon 


THE  SPIRIT   OF  THE   PURITANS  85 

tribes  met  to  choose  their  chiefs  or  to  decide  on  war  or  other 
matters  of  general  concern.  It  was  the  basis  suggested  by 
nature;  for,  as  the  chief  historian  of  these  times  has  re- 
marked, freedom  is  spontaneous,  but  the  artificial  distinc- 
tions of  rank  are  the  growth  of  centuries.  Lands,  according 
to  this  instrument,  were  free  and  alienable;  the  freemen  of 
a  corporation  held  them,  but  claimed  no  right  of  distribu- 
tion. There  should  be  no  monopolies:  no  wif e-beating :  no 
slavery  "Except  voluntary":  ministers  as  well  as  magis- 
trates should  be  chosen  by  popular  vote.  Authority  was 
given  to  approved  customs ;  the  various  towns  or  settlements 
constituting  the  commonwealth  were  each  a  living  political 
organism.  No  combination  of  churches  should  control  any 
one  church : — such  were  some  of  the  provisions.  The  colo- 
nies were  availing  themselves  of  the  unique  opportunity 
afforded  by  their  emancipation,  in  the  wilderness,  from  the 
tyranny  and  obstruction  of  old-world  traditions  and  licensed 
abuses. 

By  the  increasing  body  of  their  brethren  in  England, 
meanwhile,  New  England  was  looked  upon  as  a  sort  of  New 
Jerusalem,  and  letters  from  the  leaders  were  passed  from 
hand  to  hand  like  messages  from  saints.  Up  to  the  time 
when  Charles  and  Laud  were  checked  by  Parliament,  the 
tide  of  emigration  set  so  strongly  toward  the  American 
shores  that  measures  were  taken  by  the  King  to  arrest  it; 
by  1638,  there  were  in  New  England  more  than  twenty-one 
thousand  colonists.  The  rise  of  the  power  of  Parliament 
stopped  the  influx ;  but  the  succeeding  twenty  years  of  peace 
gave  the  much-needed  chance  for  quiet  and  well-considered 
growth  and  development.  The  singular  prudence  and  fore- 
sight of  Winthrop  and  others  in  authority,  during  this  inter- 
regnum, was  showed  by  their  declining  to  accept  certain 
apparent  advantages  proffered  them  in  love  and  good  faith 
by  their  English  friends.  A  new  patent  was  offered  them 
in  place  of  their  royal  charter ;  but  the  colonists  perceived 
that  the  reign  of  Parliament  was  destined  to  be  temporary, 


86  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

and  wisely  refused.  Other  suggestions,  likely  to  lead  to 
future  entanglements,  were  rejected ;  among  them,  a  propo- 
sition from  Cromwell  that  they  should  all  come  over  and 
occupy  Ireland.  This  is  as  curious  as  that  other  alleged 
incident  of  Cromwell  and  Hampden  having  been  stopped 
by  Laud  when  they  had  embarked  for  New  England,  and 
being  forced  to  remain  in  the  country  which  soon  after  owed 
to  them  its  freedom  from  kingly  and  episcopal  tyranny. 

Material  prosperity  began  to  show  itself  in  the  new  coun- 
try, now  that  the  first  metaphysical  problems  were  in  the 
way  of  settlement.  In  Salem  they  were  building  ships,  cot- 
ton was  manufactured  in  Boston ;  the  export  trade  in  furs 
and  other  commodities  was  brisk  and  profitable.  The  En- 
glish Parliament  passed  a  law  exempting  them  from  taxes. 
After  so  much  adversity,  fortune  was  sending  them  a  gleam 
of  sunshine,  and  they  were  making  their  hay.  But  some- 
thing of  the  arrogance  of  prosperity  must  also  be  accredited 
to  them ;  the  Puritans  were  never  more  bigoted  and  intol- 
erant than  now.  The  persecution  of  the  Quakers  is  a  blot 
on  their  fame,  only  surpassed  by  the  witchcraft  cruelties  of 
the  concluding  years  of  the  century.  Mary  Dyar,  and  the 
men  Robinson,  Stephenson  and  Leddra  were  executed  for 
no  greater  crime  than  obtruding  their  unwelcome  opinions, 
and  outraging  the  propriety  of  the  community.  The  fate 
of  Christison  hung  for  a  while  in  the  balance ;  he  was  not 
less  guilty  than  the  others,  and  he  defied  his  judges;  he 
told  them  that  where  they  murdered  one,  ten  others  would 
arise  in  his  place;  the  same  words  that  had  been  heard 
many  a  time  in  England,  when  the  Puritaas  themselves 
were  on  their  trial.  Nevertheless  the  judges  passed  the 
sentence  of  death;  but  the  people  were  disturbed  by  such 
bloody  proceedings,  and  Christison  was  finally  set  free.  It 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  Quakers  of  this  period  were 
very  different  from  those  who  afterward  populated  the  City 
of  Brotherly  Love  under  Penn.  They  were  fanatics  of  the 
most  extravagant  and  incorrigible  sort;  loudmouthed,  fran- 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   PURITANS  87 

tic  and  disorderly;  and  instead  of  observing  modesty  in  their 
garb,  their  women  not  seldom  ran  naked  through  the  streets 
of  horrified  Boston,  in  broad  daylight.  They  thirsted  for 
persecution  as  ordinary  persons  do  for  wealth  or  fame,  and 
would  not  be  satisfied  till  they  had  provoked  punishment. 
The  granite  wall  of  Puritanism  seemed  to  exist  especially 
for  them  to  dash  themselves  against  it.  Such  persons  can 
hardly  be  deemed  sane ;  and  it  is  of  not  the  slightest  impor- 
tance what  particular  creed  they  profess.  They  are  opposed 
to  authority  and  order  because  they  are  authority  and  order; 
in  our  day,  we  group  such  folk  under  the  name,  Anarchists; 
but,  instead  of  hanging  them  as  the  Puritans  did,  we  let 
them  froth  and  threaten,  according  to  the  policy  of  Roger 
Williams,  until  the  lack  of  echoes  leads  them  to  hold  their 
peace. 

Although  slavery,  or  perpetual  servitude,  was  forbidden 
by  the  statute,  there  were  many  slaves  in  New  England, 
Indians  and  whites  as  well  as  negroes.  The  first  importa- 
tion of  the  latter  was  in  1619,  by  the  Dutch,  it  is  said.  No 
slave  could  be  kept  in  bondage  more  than  ten  years;  it 
was  stipulated  that  they  were  to  be  brought  from  Africa, 
or  elsewhere,  only  with  their  own  consent;  and  when,  in 
1638,  it  appeared  that  a  cargo  of  them  had  been  forcibly 
introduced,  they  were  sent  back  to  Africa.  Prisoners  of  war 
were  condemned  to  servitude;  and,  altogether,  the  feeling 
on  the  subject  of  human  bondage  appears  to  have  been  both 
less  and  more  fastidious  than  it  afterward  became.  There 
was  no  such  indifference  as  was  shown  in  the  Southern  slave 
trade  two  centuries  later,  nor  was  there  any  of  the  humani- 
tarian fanaticism  exhibited  by  the  extreme  Abolitionists  of 
the  years  before  the  Civil  War.  It  may  turn  out  that  the 
attitude  of  the  Puritans  had  more  common-sense  in  it  than 
had  either  of  the  others. 

The  great  event  of  1643  was  the  natural  outcome  of  the 
growth  and  expansion  of  the  previous  time.  It  was  the 
federation  of  the  four  colonies  of  Massachusetts,  Plymouth, 


88  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

/ 

New  Haven,  and  Connecticut.  Connecticut  had  been  set- 
tled in  1630,  but  it  was  not  till  six  years  afterward  that  a 
party  headed  by  the  renowned  Thomas  Hooker,  the  "Son 
of  Thunder,"  and  one  of  the  most  judicious  men  of  that  age, 
journeyed  from  Boston  with  the  deliberate  purpose  of  creat- 
ing another  commonwealth  in  the  desert.  Connecticut  did 
not  offer  assurances  of  a  peaceful  settlement;  the  Indians 
were  numerous  there,  and  not  well-disposed;  and  in  the 
south,  the  Dutch  of  New  Amsterdam  were  complaining  of 
an  infringement  of  boundaries.  These  ominous  conditions 
came  to  a  head  in  the  Pequot  war ;  after  which  peace  reigned 
for  many  years.  A  constitution  of  the  most  liberal  kind  was 
created  by  the  settlers,  some  of  the  articles  of  which  led  to 
a  correspondence  between  Hooker  and  Winthrop  as  to  the 
comparative  merits  of  magisterial  and  popular  governments. 
Unlearned  men,  however  religious,  if  elected  to  office,  must 
needs  call  in  the  assistance  of  the  learned  ministers,  who, 
thus  burdened  with  matters  not  rightly  within  their  func- 
tion, might  err  in  counseling  thereon.  Of  the  people,  the 
best  part  was  always  the  least,  and  of  that  best,  the  wiser 
is  the  lesser. — This  was  Winthrop's  position.  Hooker  re- 
plied that  to  allow  discretion  to  the  judge  was  the  way  to 
tyranny.  Seek  the  law  at  its  mouth ;  it  is  free  from  passion, 
and  should  rule  the  rulers  themselves;  let  the  judge  do  ac- 
cording to  the  sentence  of  the  law.  In  high  matters,  busi- 
ness should  be  done  by  a  general  council,  chosen  by  all,  as 
was  the  practice  of  the  Jewish  and  other  well-ordered  states. 
— This  is  an  example  of  the  political  discussions  of  that  day 
in  New  England ;  both  parties  to  it  concerned  solely  to  come 
at  the  truth,  and  free  from  any  selfish  aim  or  pride.  The 
soundness  of  Hooker's  view  may  be  deduced  from  the  fact 
that  the  constitution  of  Connecticut  (which  differed  in  no 
essential  respect  from  those  of  the  other  colonies)  has  sur- 
vived almost  unchanged  to  the  present  day.  Statesman- 
ship, during  two  and  a  half  centuries,  has  multiplied  de- 
tails and  improved  the  nicety  of  adjustments;  but  it  has 


THE   SPIRIT   OP    THE   PURITANS  89 

not  discerned  any  principles  which  had  not  been  seen  with 
perfect  distinctness  by  the  clear  and  venerable  eyes  of  the 
Puritan  fathers. 

Eaton,  another  man  of  similar  caliber,  was  the  leading 
spirit  in  the  New  Haven  settlement,  assisted  by  the  Rever- 
end Mr.  Davenport;  many  of  the  colonists  were  Second- 
Adventists,  and  they  called  the  Bible  their  Statute-Book. 
The  date  of  their  establishment  was  1638.  The  incoherent 
population  of  Rhode  Island  caused  it  to  be  excluded  from 
the  federation;  but  Williams,  journeying  to  London,  ob- 
tained a  patent  from  the  exiled  but  now  powerful  Vane, 
and  took  as  the  motto  of  his  government,  "Amor  Vincet 
Omnia. "  New  Hampshire,  which  had  been  united  to  Massa- 
chusetts in  1641,  could  have  no  separate  part  in  the  new 
arrangement ;  and  Maine,  an  indeterminate  region,  sparsely 
inhabited  by  people  who  had  come  to  seek  not  God,  but 
fish  in  the  western  world,  was  not  considered.  The  articles 
of  federation  of  the  four  Calvinist  colonies  aimed  to  provide 
mutual  protection  against  the  Indians,  against  possible  en- 
croachment from  England,  against  Dutch  and  French  col- 
onists: they  declared  a  league  not  only  for  defense  and 
offense,  but  for  the  promotion  of  spiritual  truth  and  liberty. 
Nothing  was  altered  in  the  constitutions  of  any  of  the  con- 
tracting parties;  and  an  equitable  system  of  apportioning 
expenses  was  devised.  Each  partner  sent  two  delegates  to 
the  common  council ;  all  affairs  proper  to  the  federation  were 
determined  by  a  three-fourths  vote;  a  law  for  the  delivery 
of  fugitive  slaves  was  agreed  to;  and  the  commissioners  of 
the  other  jurisdictions  were  empowered  to  coerce  any  mem- 
ber of  the  federation  which  should  break  this  contract.  The 
title  of  The  United  Colonies  of  New  England  was  bestowed 
upon  the  alliance.  The  articles  were  the  work  of  a  com- 
mittee of  the  leading  men  in  the  country,  such  as  Winthrop, 
Winslow,  Haynes  and  Eaton;  and  the  confederacy  lasted 
forty  years,  being  dissolved  in  1684. 

It  was  a  great  result  from  an  experiment  begun  only 


90  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

about  a  dozen  years  before.  It  was  greater  even  than  its 
outward  seeming,  for  it  contained  within  itself  the  forces 
which  should  control  the  future.  This  country  is  made  up 
of  many  elements,  and  has  been  molded  to  no  small  extent 
by  circumstances  hardly  to  be  foreseen ;  but  it  seems  incon- 
.testable  that  it  would  never  have  endured,  and  continued  to 
be  the  goal  of  all  pilgrims  who  wish  to  escape  from  a  re- 
stricted to  a  freer  life,  had  not  its  corner-stone  been  laid, 
and  its  outline  fixed,  by  these  first  colonists  of  New  Eng- 
land. It  has  been  calculated  that  in  two  hundred  years  the 
physical  increase  of  each  Puritan  family  was  one  thousand 
persons,  dispersed  over  the  territory  of  the  United  States; 
and  the  moral  influence  which  this  posterity  exerted  on  the 
various  communities  in  wllich  they  fixed  their  abode  is  be- 
yond computation.  But  had  the  Puritan  fathers  been  as 
ordinary  men :  had  they  come  hither  for  ends  of  gain  and 
aggrandizement :  had  they  not  been  united  by  the  most  in- 
violable ties  that  can  bind  men — community  in  religious 
faith,  brotherhood  in  persecution  for  conscience'  sake,  and 
an  intense,  inflexible  enthusiasm  for  liberty — their  descend- 
ants would  have  had  no  spiritual  inheritance  to  disseminate. 
Many  superficial  changes  have  come  upon  our  society ;  there 
is  an  absence  of  a  fixed  national  type ;  there  are  many  thou- 
sands of  illiterate  persons  among  us,  and  of  those  who  are 
still  ignorant  of  the  true  nature  of  democratic  institutions ; 
all  the  tongues  of  Europe  and  of  other  parts  of  the  world 
may  be  heard  within  our  boundaries ;  there  are  great  bodies 
of  our  citizens  who  selfishly  pursue  ends  of  private  enrich- 
ment and  power,  indifferent  to  the  patent  fact  that  multi- 
tudes of  their  fellows  are  thereby  obstructed  in  the  effort 
to  earn  a  livelihood  in  this  most  productive  country  in  the 
world;  there  are  many  who  have  prostituted  the  name  of 
statesmanship  to  the  gratification  of  petty  and  transient  am- 
bitions :  and  many  more  who,  relieved  by  the  thrift  of  their 
ancestors  from  the  necessity  to  win  their  bread,  have  re- 
nounced all  concern  in  the  welfare  of  the  state,  and  live 


THE   SPIRIT   OF   THE   PURITANS  91 

trivial  and  empty  lives :  all  this,  and  more,  may  be  conceded. 
But  such  evil  humors,  be  it  repeated,  are  superficial,  attest- 
ing the  vigor,  rather  than  the  decay,  of  the  central  vitality. 
America  still  stands  for  an  idea ;  there  is  in  it  an  immortal 
soul.  It  was  by  the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  Bay  that  this 
soul  was  implanted ;  to  inspire  it  was  their  work.  They  ex- 
perienced the  realities,  they  touched  the  core  of  things,  as 
few  men  have  ever  done ;  for  they  were  born  in  an  age  when 
the  world  was  awakening  from  the  spiritual  slumber  of  more 
than  fifteen  hundred  years,  and  upon  its  bewildered  eyes 
was  breaking  the  splendor  of  a  great  new  light.  The  Puri- 
tans were  the  immediate  heirs  of  the  Reformation  (so  called ; 
it  might  more  truly  have  been  named  the  New  Incarnation, 
since  the  outward  modifications  of  visible  form  were  but  the 
symptoms  of  a  freshly-communicated  informing  intelligence). 
It  transfigured  them ;  from  men  sunk  in  the  gross  and  sen- 
sual thoughts  and  aims  of  an  irreligious  and  priest-ridden 
age — an  age  which  ate  and  drank  and  slept  and  fought,  and 
kissed  the  feet  of  popes,  and  maundered  of  the  divine  right 
of  kings — from  this  sluggish  degradation  it  roused  and  trans- 
figured the  Englishmen  who  came  to  be  known  as  Puritans. 
It  was  a  transfiguration,  though  its  subjects  were  the  un- 
couth, almost  grotesque  figures  which  chronicle  and  tradi- 
tion have  made  familiar  to  us.  For  a  people  who  were 
what  the  Puritans  were  before  Puritanism,  cannot  be 
changed  by  the  Holy  Ghost  into  angels  of  light;  their 
stubborn  carnality  will  not  evaporate  like  a  mist ;  it  clings 
to  them,  and  being  now  so  discordant  with  the  impulse 
within,  an  awkwardness  and  uncouthness  result,  which  sug- 
gest some  strange  hybrid :  to  the  eye  and  ear,  they  are  un- 
lovelier  and  harsher  than  they  were  before  their  illumina- 
tion; but  Providence  regards  not  looks;  it  knew  what  it 
was  about  when  it  chose  these  men  of  bone  and  sinew  to 
carry  out  its  purposes.  Once  enlisted,  they  never  could  be 
quelled,  or  seduced,  or  deceived,  or  wearied ;  they  were  in 
fatal  earnest,  and  faithful  unto  death,  for  they  believed  that 


92  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

God  was  their  Captain.     They  had  got  a  soul;  they  put  it 
into  their  work,  and  it  is  in  that  work  even  to  this  day. 

It  does  not  manifestly  appear  to  our  contemporary  vision ; 
it  is  overloaded  with  the  rubbish  of  things,  as  a  Greek  statue 
is  covered  with  the  careless  debris  of  ages ;  but,  as  the  art  of 
the  sculptor  is  vindicated  when  the  debris  has  been  removed, 
so  will  the  fair  proportions  of  the  State  conceived  by  the 
Puritans,  and  nourished  and  defended  by  their  sons,  declare 
themselves  when  in  the  maturity  of  our  growth  we  have  as- 
similated what  is  good  in  our  accretions,  and  disencumbered 
ourselves  of  what  is  vain.  It  is  the  American  principle,  and 
it  will  not  down;  it  is  a  solvent  of  all  foreign  substances; 
in  its  own  way  and  time  it  dissipates  all  things  that  are  not 
harmonious  with  itself.  No  lesser  or  feebler  principle  would 
have  survived  the  tests  to  which  this  has  been  subjected; 
but  this  is  indestructible ;  even  we  could  not  destroy  it  if  we 
would,  for  it  is  no  inalienable  possession  of  our  own,  but 
a  gift  from  on  High  to  the  whole  of  mankind.  But  let  us 
piously  and  proudly  remember  that  it  was  through  the  Puri- 
tans that  the  gift  was  made.  Other  nations  than  the  En- 
glish have  contributed  to  our  substance  and  prosperity,  and 
have  yielded  their  best  blood  to  flow  in  our  veins.  They 
are  dear  to  us  as  ourselves,  as  how  should  they  not  be, 
since  what,  other  than  ourselves,  are  they?  None  the  less 
is  it  true  that  what  was  worthiest  and  most  unselfish  in  the 
impulse  that  drove  them  hither  was  a  reflection  of  the  same 
impulse  that  actuated  the  Puritans  when  America  was  not 
the  most  powerful  of  republics,  but  a  wilderness.  None  of 
us  all  can  escape  from  their  greatness — from  the  debt  we 
owe  them :  not  because  they  were  Englishmen,  no*  because 
they  made  New  England ;  but  because  they  were  men,  in- 
spired of  God  to  make  the  earth  free  that  was  in  bondage 


CHAPTER    FOURTH 

FROM  HUDSON   TO   STUYVESANT 

HERE  are  two  scenes  in  the  career  of  Henry 
Hudson  which  can  never  be  forgotten  by 
Americans.  One  is  in  the  first  week  in  Sep- 
tember, 1609.  A  little  vessel,  of  eighty  tons, 
is  lying  on  the  smooth  waters  of  a  large  har- 
bor. She  has  the  mounded  stern  and  bluff 
bows  of  the  ships  of  that  day;  one  of  her  masts  has  evi- 
dently been  lately  stepped;  the  North  American  pine  of 
which  it  is  made  shows  the  marks  of  the  ship-carpenter's 
ax,  and  the  whiteness  of  the  fresh  wood.  The  square  sails 
have  been  rent,  and  mended  with  seams  and  patches ;  the 
sides  and  bulwarks  of  the  vessel  have  been  buffeted  by 
heavy  seas  off  the  Newfoundland  coast ;  the  paint  and  var- 
nish which  shone  on  them  as  she  dropped  down  the  reaches 
of  the  Zuyder  Zee  from  Amsterdam,  five  months  ago,  have 
become  whitened  with  salt  and  dulled  by  fog  and  sun  and 
driving  spray.  Across  her  stern,  above  the  rudder  of  mas- 
sive oaken  plank  clamped  with  iron,  is  painted  the  name 
"HALF  MOON,"  in  straggling  letters.  On  her  poop 
stands  Henry  Hudson,  leaning  against  the  tiller;  beside 
him  is  a  young  man,  his  son;  along  the  bulwark  lounge 
the  crew,  half  Englishmen,  half  Dutch;  broad-beamed, 
salted  tars,  with  pigtails  and  rugged  visages,  who  are  at 
home  in  Arctic  icefields  and  in  Equatorial  suns,  and  who 
now  stare  out  toward  the  low  shores  to  the  north  and  west, 
and  converse  among  themselves  in  the  nameless  jargon — 

(93) 


94  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

the  rude  compromise  between  guttural  Dutch  and  husky 
English— which  has  served  them  as  a  medium  of  communi- 
cation during  the  long  voyage.  It  is  a  good  harbor,  they 
think,  and  a  likely  country.  They  are  impatient  for  the 
skipper  to  let  them  go  ashore,  and  find  out  what  grows  hi 
the  woods. 

Meanwhile  the  great  navigator,  supporting  himself,  with 
folded  arms,  against  the  creaking  tiller,  absorbs  the  scene 
through  his  deep-set  eyes  in  silence.  Many  a  haven  had  he 
visited  in  his  time ;  he  had  been  within  ten  degrees  of  the 
North  Pole;  he  had  seen  the  cliffs  of  Spitzbergen  loom 
through  the  fog,  and  had  heard  the  sound  of  Greenland 
glaciers  breaking  into  vast  icebergs  where  they  overhung 
the  sea;  he  had  lain  in  the  thronged  ports  of  the  Nether- 
lands, where  the  masts  cluster  like  naked  forests,  and  the 
commerce  of  the  world  seethes  and  murmurs  continually; 
he  had  dropped  anchor  in  quiet  English  harbors,  under  cool 
gray  skies,  with  undulating  English  hills  in  the  distance, 
and  prosperous  wharfs  and  busy  streets  in  front.  He  had 
sweltered,  no  doubt,  beneath  the  heights  of  Hong-Kong, 
amid  a  city  of  swarming  junks;  and  further  south  had 
smelled  the  breeze  that  blows  through  the  straits  of  the 
Spice  Islands.  He  knew  the  surface  of  the  earth,  as  a 
farmer  knows  his  farm ;  but  never,  he  thought,  had  he  be- 
held a  softer  and  more  inviting  prospect  than  this  which 
spread  before  him  now,  mellowed  by  the  haze  of  the  mild 
September  morning. 

On  all  sides  the  shores  were  wooded  to  the  water's  edge : 
a  giant  forest,  unbroken,  dense  and  tall,  flourishing  from  its 
own  immemorial  decay,  matted  with  wild  grape  vine,  choked 
with  brush,  wild  as  when  the  Creator  made  it;  untouched, 
since  then.  It  was  as  remote — as  lost  to  mankind — as  it 
was  beautiful.  The  hum  and  turmoil  of  the  civilized  world 
was  like  the  memory  of  a  dream  in  this  tranquil  region, 
where  untrammeled  nature  had  worked  her  teeming  will 
for  centuries  upon  silent  centuries.  Here  were  such  peace 


FROM   HUDSON   TO   STUYVESANT  95 

and  stillness  that  the  cry  of  the  blue  jay  seemed  audacious; 
the  dive  of  a  gull  into  the  smooth  water  was  a  startling 
event.  To  the  imaginative  mind  of  Hudson  this  spot  seemed 
to  have  been  set  apart  by  Providence,  hidden  away  behind 
the  sandy  reaches  of  the  outer  coast,  so  that  irreverent  man, 
who  turns  all  things  to  gain,  might  never  discover  and  pro- 
fane its  august  solitudes.  Here  the  search  for  wealth  was 
never  to  penetrate;  the  only  gold  was  in  the  tender  sun- 
shine, and  in  the  foliage  of  here  and  there  a  giant  tree, 
which  the  distant  approach  of  winter  was  lulling  into  golden 
slumber.  But  then,  with  a  sigh,  he  reflected  that  all  the 
earth  was  man's,  and  the  fullness  thereof;  and  that  here  too, 
perhaps,  would  one  day  appear  clearings  in  the  primeval  for- 
est, and  other  vessels  would  ride  at  anchor,  and  huts  would 
peep  out  from  beneath  the  overshadowing  foliage  on  the 
shores.  But  it  was  hard  to  conjure  up  such  a  ^picture ;  it 
was  difficult  to  imagine  so  untamed  a  wilderness  subdued, 
in  ever  so  small  a  degree,  by  the  hand  of  industry  and  com- 
merce. 

Northwestward,  across  the  green  miles  of  whispering 
leaves,  the  land  appeared  to  rise  in  long,  level  bluffs,  still 
thronged  with  serried  trees ;  a  great  arm  of  the  sea,  a  mile 
or  two  in  breadth,  extended  east  of  north,  and  thither,  the 
mariner  dreamed,  might  lie  the  long-sought  pathway  to 
the  Indies.  A  tongue  of  land,  broadening  as  it  receded,  and 
swelling  in  low  undulations,  divided  this  wide  strait  from  a 
narrower  one  more  to  the  east.  All  was  forest ;  and  east- 
ward still  was  more  forest,  stretching  seaward.  Southward, 
the  land  was  low — almost  as  low  and  flat  as  the  Netherlands 
themselves ;  an  unexplored  immensity,  whose  fertile  soil  had 
for  countless  ages  been  hidden  from  the  sun  by  the  impervi- 
ous shelter  of  interlacing  boughs.  No — never  had  Hudson 
seen  a  land  of  such  enduring  charm  and  measureless  prom- 
ise as  this :  and  here,  in  this  citadel  of  loneliness,  which  no 
white  man's  foot  had  ever  trod,  which,  till  then,  only  the 
eyes  of  the  corsair  Verrazano  had  seen,  near  a  century  be- 


96  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

fore — here  was  to  arise,  like  Aladdin's  Palace,  the  metropolis 
of  the  western  world ;  enormous,  roaring,  hurrying,  traffick- 
ing* grasping,  swarming  with  its  millions  upon  millions  of 
striving,  sleepless,  dauntless,  exulting,  despairing,  aspiring 
human  souls;  the  home  of  unbridled  luxury,  of  abysmal  pov- 
erty, of  gigantic  industries,  of  insolent  idleness,  of  genius, 
of  learning,  of  happiness  and  of  misery;  of  far-reaching 
enterprise,  of  political  glory  and  shame,  of  science  and  art ; 
here  human  life  was  to  reach  its  intensest,  most  breathless, 
relentless  and  insatiable  expression ;  here  was  to  stand  a  city 
whose  arms  should  reach  westward  over  a  continent,  and 
eastward  round  the  world ;  here  were  to  thunder  the  streets 
and  tower  the  buildings  and  reek  the  chimneys  and  arch 
the  bridges  and  rumble  the  railways  and  throb  the  electric 
wires  of  American  New  York,  the  supreme  product  of  Nine- 
teenth Century  civilization,  radiant  with  the  virtues  and 
grimy  with  the  failings  that  mankind  has  up  to  this  time 
developed. 

On  the -23d  of  June,  two  years  later,  Henry  Hudson  was 
the  central  figure  in  another  scene.  He  sat  in  a  small,  open 
boat,  hoary  with  frozen  spray ;  he  was  muffled  in  the  shaggy 
hide  of  a  white  bear,  roughly  fashioned  into  a  coat ;  a  sailor's 
oilskin  hat  was  drawn  down  over  his  brow,  and  beneath  its 
rim  his  eyes  gazed  sternly  out  over  a  wide  turbulence  of 
gray  waters,  tossing  with  masses  of  broken  ice.  His  dark 
beard  was  grizzled  with  frost ;  his  cheeks  were  gaunt  with 
the  privations  of  a  long,  arctic  winter  spent  amid  endless 
snows,  in  darkness  unrelieved,  smitten  by  storms,  struggling 
with  savage  beasts  and  harried  by  more  inhuman  men.  He 
sat  with  his  hand  at  the  helm;  against  his  other  shoulder 
leaned  his  son,  his  inseparable  companion,  now  sinking  into 
unconsciousness ;  the  six  rowers — the  stanch  comrades  who, 
with  him,  had  been  thrust  forth  to  perish  by  the  mutineers 
— plied  their  work  heavily  and  hopelessly;  their  rigid  jaws 
were  set ;  no  words  nor  complaints  broke  from  them,  though 
death  was  slowly  settling  round  their  valiant  hearts.  Over- 


FROM   HUDSON    TO   STUYVESANT  97 

head  brooded  a  somber  vault  of  clouds;  the  circle  of  the 
horizon,  which  seemed  to  creep  in  upon  them,  was  one  un- 
broken sweep  of  icy  dreariness,  save  where,  to  the  south- 
east, the  dark  hull  of  the  "  Discovery,"  and  her  pallid 
sails,  rocked  and  leaned  across  the  sullen  heave  of  the 
waters.  She  was  bound  for  Europe;  but  whither  is  Hud- 
son bound? 

His  end  befitted  his  lif  e ;  he  vanished  into  the  unknown, 
as  he  had  come  from  it.  There  is  no  record  of  the  time  or 
place  of  his  birth,  or  of  his  early  career,  nor  can  any  tell 
where  lie  his  bones ;  we  only  know  that  his  limbs  were  made 
in  England,  and  that  the  great  inland  sea,  called  after  him, 
ebbs  and  flows  above  his  grave.  He  first  comes  into  the 
ken  of  history,  sailing  on  the  seas,  resolute  to  discover  virgin 
straits  and  shores ;  and  when  we  see  him  last,  he  is  still  toil- 
ing onward  over  the  waves,  peering  into  the  great  mystery. 
Possibly,  as  has  been  suggested,  he  may  have  been  the  de- 
scendant of  the  Hudson  who  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Muscovy  Company,  in  whose  service  the  famous  navigator 
afterward  voyaged  on  various  errands.  It  matters  not ;  he 
lived,  and  did  his  work,  and  is  no  more;  his  strong  heart 
burned  within  him;  he  saw  what  none  had  seen;  he  tri- 
umphed, and  he  was  overcome.  But  the  doubt  that  shrouds 
his  end  has  given  him  to  legend,  and  the  thunder  that  rolls 
brokenly  among  the  dark  crags  and  ravines  of  the  Catskills 
brings  his  name  to  the  hearer's  lips. 

The  Dutch  had  had  many  opportunities  offered  to  them 
to  discover  New  York,  before  they  accepted  the  services  of 
Henry  Hudson,  who  was  willing  to  go  out  of  his  own  coun- 
try to  find  backers,  so  only  that  he  might  be  afloat.  Al- 
most every  year,  from  1581  onward,  the  mariners  of  the 
Netherlands  strove,  by  east  and  by  west,  to  pass  the  bar- 
rier that  America  interposed  between  them  and  the  Eastern 
trade  they  coveted.  The  Dutch  East  India  Company  was 
the  first  trading  corporation  of  Europe ;  and  after  the  war 
with  Spain,  during  the  twelve  years'  truce,  the  little  coun- 
U.S.— 5  VOL.  I. 


98  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

try  was  overflowing  with  men  eager  to  undertake  any  en- 
terprise, and  with  money  to  fit  them  out.  The  Netherlands 
suddenly  bloomed  out  the  most  prosperous  country  in  the 
world. 

They  would  not  be  hurried;  they  took  their  time  to 
think  it  over,  as  Dutchmen  will;  but  at  length  they  con- 
ceived an  immense  project  for  acquiring  all  the  trade,  or  the 
best  part  of  it,  of  both  the  West  and  the  East.  They  studied 
the  subject  with  the  patient  particularity  of  their  race ;  they 
outclassed  Spain  on  the  seas,  and  they  believed  they  could 
starve  out  her  commerce.  Some  there  were,  however,  who 
feared  that  in  finding  new  countries  they  would  lose  their 
own ;  Europe  was  again  in  a  turmoil,  and  they  were  again 
fighting  Spain  before  New  Amsterdam  was  founded.  But 
meanwhile,  in  1609,  quite  inadvertently,  Henry  Hudson  dis- 
covered it  for  them  at  a  moment  when  they  supposed  him 
to  be  battling  with  freezing  billows  somewhere  north  of 
Siberia.  When  he  was  stopped  by  Nova  Zembla  ice,  he 
put  about  and  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  Nova  Scotia,  and  so 
down  the  coast,  as  we  have  seen,  to  the  Chesapeake,  the 
Delaware,  and  finally  the  Hudson.  He  told  his  tale  in  glow- 
ing words  when  he  got  back;  but  the  Dutch  merchants  per- 
haps fancied  he  was  spinning  sailors'  yarns,  and  heeded  not 
his  report  till  long  after. 

Hudson,  after  passing  the  Narrows,  anchored  near  the 
Jersey  shore,  and  received  a  visit  from  some  Indians  with 
native  commodities  to  exchange  for  knives  and  beads.  They 
presented  the  usual  Indian  aspect  as  regarded  dress  and 
arms;  but  they  wore  ornaments  of  red  copper  under  their 
feather  mantles,  and  carried  pipes  of  copper  and  clay.  They 
were  affable,  but  untrustworthy,  stealing  what  they  could 
lay  their  hands  on,  and  a  few  days  later  shooting  arrows  at 
a  boatload  of  seamen  from  the  ship,  and  killing  one  John 
Colman.  Hudson  went  ashore,  and  was  honored  with  dances 
and  chants ;  upon  the  whole,  the  impression  mutually  created 
seems  to  have  been  favorable.  An  abundance  of  beans  and 


SCENE  IN  NEW  AMSTERDAM,  1660 


FROM   HUDSON  TO  STUYVESANT  99 

oysters  was  supplied  to  the  crew ;  and  no  doubt  trade  was 
carried  on  to  the  latter's  advantage;  we  know  that  years 
afterward  the  whole  of  Manhattan  Island  was  purchased 
of  its  owners  for  four-and-twenty  dollars.  The  present  in- 
habitants of  New  York  City  could  not  be  so  easily  over- 
reached. 

Hudson  now  began  the  first  trip  ever  made  by  white 
men  up  the  great  river.  How  many  millions  have  made 
it  since!  But  he,  at  this  gentlest  time  of  year,  won  with 
the  magic  not  only  of  what  he  saw,  but  of  the  unknown 
that  lay  before  him — what  must  have  been  his  sensations! 
As  reach  after  reach  of  the  incomparable  panorama  spread 
itself  out  quietly  before  him,  with  its  beauty  of  color,  its 
majesty  of  form,  its  broad  gleam  of  placid  current,  the  sheer 
lift  of  its  brown  cliffs,  its  mighty  headlands  setting  then1 
titanic  shoulders  across  his  path,  its  toppling  pinnacles  as- 
suming the  likeness  of  giant  visages,  its  swampy  meadows 
and  inlets,  lovely  with  flowers  and  waving  with  rushes,  its 
royal  eagles  stemming  the  pure  air  aloft,  its  fish  leaping  in 
the  ripples — and  then,  as  he  sailed  on,  mute  with  enchant- 
ment, the  blue  magnificence  of  the  mountains  soaring  heaven- 
ward and  melting  into  the  clouds  that  hung  about  their  sum- 
mits— as  all  this  multifarious  beauty  unfolded  itself,  Hudson 
may  well  have  thought  that  the  lost  Eden  of  the  earth  was 
found  at  last.  And  ere  long,  he  dreamed,  the  vast  walls 
through  which  the  river  moved  would  diverge  and  cease, 
like  another  Pillars  of  Hercules,  and  his  ship  would  emerge 
into  another  ocean.  It  was  verily  a  voyage  to  be  remem- 
bered ;  and  perhaps  it  returned  in  a  vision  to  his  dimming 
eyes,  that  day  he  steered  his  open  boat  through  the  arctio 
surges  of  Hudson's  Bay. 

For  ten  days  or  more  he  pressed  onward  before  a  south- 
erly breeze,  until,  in  the  neighborhood  of  what  now  is  Al- 
bany, it  became  evident  that  the  Pacific  was  not  to  be  found 
in  northern  New  York.  He  turned,  therefore,  and  drifted 
slowly  downward  with  the  steady  current,  while  the  match' 


100 


hues  of  the  American  autumn  glowed  every  day  more 
sumptuously  from  the  far-billowing  woods.  What  sunrises 
and  what  sunsets  dyed  the  waters  with  liquid  splendor: 
what  moons,  let  us  hope,  turned  the  glories  of  day  into 
the  spiritual  mysteries  of  fairyland  !  Hudson  was  not 
born  for  repose;  his  fate  was  to  sail  unrestingly  till  he 
died;  but  as  he  passed  down  through  this  serene  carnival 
of  opulent  nature,  he  may  well  have  wished  that  here, 
after  all  voyages  were  done,  his  lot  might  finally  be  cast; 
he  may  well  have  wondered  whether  any  race  would  be 
born  so  great  and  noble  as  to  merit  the  gift  of  such  a  river 
and  such  a  land. 

He  landed  at  various  places  on  the  way,  and  was  always 
civilly  and  hospitably  welcomed  by  the  red  men,  who  brought 
him  their  wild  abundance,  and  took  in  return  what  he  chose 
to  give.  The  marvelous  richness  of  the  vegetation,  and  the 
vegetable  decay  of  ages,  had  rendered  the  margins  of  the 
stream  as  deadly  as  they  were  lovely ;  fever  lurked  in  every 
glade  and  bower,  and  serpents  whose  bite  was  death  basked 
in  the  sun  or  crept  among  the  rocks.  All  was  as  it  had  al- 
ways been;  the  red  men,  living  in  the  midst  of  nature,  were 
a  part  of  nature  themselves;  nothing  was  changed  by  their 
presence ;  they  altered  not  the  flutter  of  a  leaf  or  the  posture 
of  a  stone,  but  stole  in  and  out  noiseless  and  lithe,  and  left 
behind  them  no  trace  of  their  passage.  It  is  not  so  with 
the  white  man:  before  him,  nature  flies  and  perishes;  he 
clothes  the  earth  in  the  thoughts  of  his  own  mind,  cast  in 
forms  of  matter,  and  contemplates  them  with  pride;  but 
when  he  dies,  another  comes,  and  refashions  the  materials 
to  suit  himself.  So  one  follows  another,  and  nothing  en- 
dures that  man  has  made ;  for  this  is  his  destiny.  And  at 
length,  when  the  last  man  has  dressed  out  his  dolls  and 
built  his  little  edifice  of  stones  and  sticks,  and  is  gone: 
nature,  who  was  not  dead,  but  sleeping,  awakes,  and  re- 
sumes her  ancient  throne,  and  her  eternal  works  declare 
themselves  once  more;  and  she  dissolves  the  bones  in  the 


FROM   HUDSON   TO  STUYVESANT  101 

grave,  and  the  grave  itself  vanishes,  with  its  record  of  what 
man  had  been.     What  says  our  poet? — 

"How  am  I  theirs, 
When  they  hold  not  me, 
But  I  hold  them?" 

In  1613,  or  thereabout,  Christiansen  and  Block  visited  the 
harbor  and  got  furs,  and  also  a  couple  of  Indian  boys  to 
show  the  burghers  of  Amsterdam,  since  they  could  not  fetch 
the  great  river  to  Holland.  In  1614  they  went  again  with 
five  ships — the  "Fortune  of  Amsterdam,"  the  "Fortune  of 
fioorn,"  and  the  "Tiger  of  Amsterdam"  (which  was  burned), 
and  two  others.  Block  built  himself  a  boat  of  sixteen  tons, 
and  explored  the  Sound,  and  the  New  England  coast  as  far 
as  Massachusetts  Bay;  touched  at  the  island  known  by  his 
name,  and  forgathered  with  the  Indian  tribes  all  along  his 
route.  The  explorers  were  granted  a  charter  in  the  same 
year,  giving  them  a  three  years'  monopoly  of  the  trade,  and 
in  this  charter  the  title  New  Netherland  is  bestowed  upon 
the  region.  The  Dutch  were  at  last  bestirring  themselves. 
Two  years  after,  Schouten  of  Hoorn  saw  the  southernmost 
point  of  Tierra  del  Fuego,  and  gave  it  the  name  of  his  home 
port  as  he  swept  by;  and  three  other  Netherlanders  pene- 
trated to  the  wilds  of  Philadelphia  that  was  to  be.  A  forti- 
fied trading  post  was  built  at  Albany,  where  now  legislation 
instead  of  peltries  is  the  subject  of  barter.  At  this  juncture 
internal  quarrels  in  the  Dutch  government  led  to  tragic 
events,  which  stimulated  plans  of  western  colonization,  and 
the  desire  to  start  a  commonwealth  on  Hudson  River  to  fore- 
stall the  English — for  the  latter  as  well  as  the  Dutch  and 
Spanish  claimed  everything  in  sight.  The  Dutch  East  India 
Company  began  business  in  1621  with  a  twenty-four  year 
charter,  renewable.  It  was  given  power  to  create  an  inde- 
pendent nation ;  the  world  was  invited  to  buy  its  stock,  and 
the  States-General  invested  a  million  guilders  in  it.  Its 
field  was  the  entire  west  coast  of  Africa,  and  the  east  coast 


102  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

of  North  and  South  America.  Such  schemes  are  of  plane- 
tary magnificence ;  but  of  all  this  realm,  the  Dutch  now  hold 
the  little  garden  patch  of  Dutch  Guiana  only,  and  the  pleas- 
ant records  of  their  sojourn  on  Manhattan  Island  between 
the  years  1623  and  1664. 

Indeed,  the  Dutch  episode  in  our  history  is  in  all  respects 
refreshing  and  agreeable;  the  burghers  set  us  an  example 
of  thrift  and  steadiness  too  good  for  us  to  follow  it ;  and  they 
deeded  to  us  some  of  our  best  citizens,  and  most  engaging 
architectural  traditions.  But  it  is  not  after  all  for  these  and 
other  material  benefits  that  we  are  indebted  to  them;  we 
thank  them  still  more  for  being  what  they  were  (and  could 
not  help  being) :  for  their  character,  their  temperament,  their 
costume,  their  habits,  their  breadth  of  beam,  their  length  of 
pipes,  the  deliberation  of  their  courtships,  the  hardness  of 
their  bargains,  the  portentousness  of  their  tea-parties,  the 
industrious  decorum  of  their  women,  the  dignity  of  their 
patroons,  the  strictness  of  their  social  conduct,  the  soundness 
of  their  education,  the  stoutness  of  their  independence,  the 
excellence  of  their  good  sense,  the  simplicity  of  their  pru- 
dence, and  above  all,  for  the  wooden  leg  of  Peter  Stuyvesant. 
In  a  word,  the  humorous  perception  of  the  American  people 
has  made  a  pet  of  the  Dutch  tradition  in  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania;  as,  likewise,  of  the  childlike  comicalities  of 
the  plantation  negro;  the  arch  waggishness  of  the  Irish 
emigrants,  and  the  cherubic  shrewdness  of  the  newly- 
acquired  German.  The  Dutch  gained  much,  on  the  senti- 
mental score,  by  transplantation ;  their  old-world  flavor  and 
rich  coloring  are  admirably  relieved  against  the  background 
of  unbaked  wilderness.  "We  could  not  like  them  so  much  or 
laugh  at  them  at  all,  did  we  not  so  thoroughly  respect  them ; 
the  men  of  New  Amsterdam  were  worthy  of  their  national 
history,  which  recounts  as  stirring  a  struggle  as  was  ever 
made  by  the  love  of  liberty  against  the  foul  lust  of  oppres- 
sion. The  Dutch  are  not  funny  anywhere  but  in  Seven- 
teenth Century  Manhattan;  nor  can  this  singularity  be  ex- 


FROM   HUDSON   TO   STUYVESANT  103 

plained  by  saying  that  Washington  Irving  made  them  so. 
It  inheres  in  the  situation ;  and  the  delightful  chronicles  of 
Diedrich  Knickerbocker  owe  half  their  enduring  fascination 
to  their  sterling  veracity — the  veracity  which  is  faithful  to 
the  spirit  and  gambols  only  with  the  letter.  The  humor  of 
that  work  lies  in  its  sympathetic  and  creative  insight  quite 
as  much  as  in  the  broad  good-humor  and  imaginative  whim- 
sicality with  which  the  author  handles  his  theme.  The  cari- 
cature of  a  true  artist  gives  a  better  likeness  than  any  photo- 
graph. 

The  first  ship  containing  families  of  colonists  went  out 
early  in  1623,  under  the  command  of  Cornelis  May;  he  broke 
ground  on  Manhattan,  while  Joris  built  Fort  Orange  at  Al- 
bany, and  a  little  group  of  settlers  squatted  round  it.  May 
acted  as  director  for  the  first  year  or  two;  the  trade  in  furs 
was  prosecuted,  and  the  first  Dutch- American  baby  was  born 
at  Fort  Orange. 

Fortune  was  kind.  King  Charles,  instead  of  discussing 
prior  rights,  offered  an  alliance ;  at  home,  the  bickerings  of 
sects  were  healed.  Peter  Minuit  came  out  as  director-gen- 
eral and  paid  his  twenty-four  dollars  for  the  Island — a  little 
less  than  a  thousand  acres  for  a  dollar.  At  all  events,  the 
Indians  seemed  satisfied  from  Albany  to  the  Narrows.  The 
Battery  was  designed,  and  there  was  quite  a  cluster  of  houses 
on  the  clearing  back  of  it.  An  atmosphere  of  Dutch  home- 
liness began  to  temper  the  thin  American  air.  The  honest 
citizens  were  pious,  and  had  texts  read  to  them  on  Sundays; 
but  they  did  not  torture  their  consciences  with  spiritual  self- 
questionings  like  the  English  Puritans,  nor  dream  of  disci- 
plining or  banishing  any  of  their  number  for  the  better  heav- 
enly security  of  the  rest.  The  souls  of  these  Netherlander^ 
fitted  their  bodies  far  better  than  was  the  case  with  the 
colonists  of  Boston  and  Salem.  Instead  of  starving  and 
rending  them,  their  religion  made  them  happy  and  comfort- 
able. Instead  of  settling  the  ultimate  principles  of  theology 
and  government,  they  enjoyed  the  consciousness  of  mutual 


104  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

good-will,  and  took  tilings  as  they  came.  The  ne-vf  world 
needed  men  of  both  kinds.  It  must,  however,  be  admitted 
that  the  people  of  New  Amsterdam  were  not  wholly  har- 
monious with  those  of  Plymouth.  Minuit  and  Bradford  had 
some  correspondence,  in  which,  while  professions  of  mutual 
esteem  and  love  were  exchanged,  uneasy  things  were  let 
fall  about  clear  titles  and  prior  rights.  Minuit  was  resolute 
for  his  side,  and  the  attitude  of  Bradford  prompted  him  to 
send  for  a  company  of  soldiers  from  home.  But  there  was 
probably  no  serious  anticipation  of  coming  to  blows  on  either 
part.  There  was  space  enough  in  the  continent  for  the  two 
hundred  and  seventy  inhabitants  of  New  Amsterdam  and 
for  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  for  the  present. 

Spain  was  an  unwilling  contributor  to  the  prosperity  of 
the  Dutch  colonists,  by  the  large  profits  which  the  latter 
gained  from  the  capture  of  Spanish  galleons;  but  in  1629  the 
charter  creating  the  order  of  Patroons  laid  the  foundation 
for  abuses  and  discontent  which  afflicted  the  settlers  for  full 
thirty  years.  Upon  the  face  of  it,  the  charter  was  liberal, 
and  promised  good  results;  but  it  made  the  mistake  of  not 
securing  popular  liberties.  The  Netherlands  were  no  doubt 
a  free  country,  as  freedom  was  at  that  day  understood  in 
Europe ;  but  this  freedom  did  not  involve  independence  for 
the  individual.  The  only  recognized  individuality  was  that 
of  the  municipalities,  the  rulers  of  which  were  not  chosen 
by  popular  franchise.  This  system  answered  well  enough 
in  the  old  home,  but  proved  unsuited  to  the  conditions  of 
settlers  in  the  wilderness.  The  American  spirit  seemed  to 
lurk  like  some  subtle  contagion  in  the  remotest  recesses  of 
the  forest,  and  those  who  went  to  live  there  became  affected 
with  it.  It  was  longer  in  successfully  vindicating  itself  than 
in  New  England,  because  it  was  not  stimulated  on  the  banks 
of  the  Hudson  by  the  New  England  religious  fervor:  it  was 
supported  on  grounds  of  practical  expediency  merely.  Men 
could  not  prosper  unless  they  received  the  rewards  of  in- 
dustry, and  were  permitted  to  order  their  private  affairs  in 


FROM   HUDSON   TO   STUYVESANT  105 

a  manner  to  make  their  labor  pay.  They  were  not  content 
to  have  the  Patroon  devour  their  profits,  leaving  them  enough 
only  for  a  bare  subsistence.  The  Dutch  families  scattered 
throughout  the  domain  could  not  get  ahead,  while  yet  they 
could  not  help  feeling  that  the  bounty  of  nature  ought  to 
benefit  those  whose  toil  made  it  available,  at  least  as  much 
as  it  did  those  who  toiled  not,  but  simply  owned  the  land 
in  virtue  of  some  documentary  transaction  with  the  powers 
above,  and  therefore  claimed  ownership  also  over  the  poor 
emigrant  who  settled  on  it — having  nowhere  else  to  go.  The 
emigrants  were  probably  helped  to  comprehend  and  formu- 
late their  own  misfortunes  by  communications  with  strag- 
glers from  New  England,  who  regaled  them  with  tales  of 
such  liberties  as  they  had  never  before  imagined.  But  the 
seed  thus  sown  by  the  Englishmen  fell  on  fruitful  soil,  and 
the  crop  was  reaped  in  due  season. 

The  charter  intended,  primarily,  the  encouragement  of 
emigration,  and  did  not  realize  that  it  needed  very  little  en- 
couragement. The  advantages  offered  were  more  alluring 
than  they  need  have  been.  Any  person  who,  within  four 
years,  could  establish  a  colony  of  fifty  persons,  was  given 
privileges  only  comparable  to  those  of  independent  princes. 
They  were  allowed  to  take  up  tracts  of  land  many  square 
miles  in  area,  to  govern  them  absolutely  (according  to  the 
laws  of  the  realm),  to  found  and  administer  cities,  and  in 
a  word  to  drink  from  Baucis's  pitcher  to  their  hearts'  con- 
tent. In  return,  the  home  administration  expected  the  bene- 
fit of  their  trade.  Two  stipulations  only  restrained  them : 
they  were  to  buy  titles  to  their  land  from  the  Indians,  and 
they  were  to  permit,  on  penalty  of  removal,  no  cotton  or 
woolen  manufactures  in  the  country.  That  was  a  monopoly 
which  was  reserved  to  the  weavers  in  the  old  country. 

This  was  excellent  for  such  as  could  afford  to  become 
patroons ;  but  what  about  the  others?  The  charter  provided 
that  any  emigrant  who  could  pay  for  his  exportation  might 
take  up  what  land  he  required  for  his  needs,  and  cultivate 


io6  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

it  independently.  Other  emigrants,  unable  to  pay  their  fare 
out,  might  have  it  paid  for  them,  but  in  that  case,  of  course, 
incurred  a  mortgage  to  their  benefactors.  In  effect,  they 
could  not  own  the  product  of  the  work  of  their  hands,  until 
it  had  paid  their  sponsors  for  their  outlay,  together  with 
such  additions  in  the  way  of  interest  on  capital  as  might 
seem  to  the  sponsors  equitable. 

The  Company  further  undertook  to  supply  slaves  to  the 
colony,  should  they  prove  to  be  a  paying  investment;  and 
it  was  chiefly  because  the  climate  of  New  York  was  less 
favorable  to  the  Guinea  Coast  negro  than  was  that  further 
south,  that  African  slavery  did  not  take  early  and  firm  root 
in  the  former  region.  Philosophers  have  long  recognized 
the  influence  of  degrees  of  latitude  upon  human  morality. 
The  patroon  planters  could  dispense  with  black  slaves,  since 
they  had  white  men  enough  who  cost  them  no  more  than 
their  keep,  and  would,  presumably,  not  involve  the  expense 
of  overseers.  Everything,  therefore,  seemed  harmonious 
and  sunshiny,  and  the  Company  congratulated  itself. 

But  the  patroons,  through  their  agents,  began  buying 
up  all  the  land  that  was  worth  having,  and  found  it  easy 
to  evade  the  stipulation  restricting  them  to  sixteen  miles 
apiece.  One  of  them  had  an  estate  running  twenty-four 
miles  on  either  bank  of  the  Hudson,  below  Albany  (or  Fort 
Orange  as  it  was  then),  and  forty-eight  miles  inland.  It 
was  superb;  but  it  was  as  far  as  possible  from  being  de- 
mocracy ;  and  the  portly  Van  Rensselaer  of  Rensselaerwyck 
would  have  shuddered  to  his  marrow,  could  he  have  cast  a 
prophetic  eye  into  the  Nineteenth  Century. 

The  Company  at  home  presently  discovered  that  its  in- 
cautious liberality  had  injured  its  own  interests,  as  well  as 
those  of  poor  settlers;  for  the  estates  of  the  patroons  covered 
the  trading  posts  where  the  Indians  came  to  traffic,  and  all 
the  profits  from  the  latter  swelled  the  pockets  of  the  pa- 
troons. But  the  charter  could  not  be  withdrawn ;  the  direc- 
tors must  be  content  with  whatever  sympathetic  benefits 


FROM   HUDSON   TO   STUYVESANT  107 

might  be  conferred  by  the  increasing  wealth  of  the  colony. 
The  patroons  were  becoming  more  powerful  than  their  crea- 
tors, and  took  things  more  and  more  into  their  own  lordly 
hands.  Neither  patroons  nor  Company  concerned  themselves 
about  the  people.  The  charter  had,  indeed,  mentioned  the 
subjects  of  schools  and  religious  instructors  for  the  emi- 
grants, but  had  made  no  provision  for  the  maintenance  of 
such;  and  the  patroons  conceived  that  such  luxuries  were 
deserving  of  but  the  slightest  encouragement.  The  more 
a  poor  man  knows,  the  less  contented  is  he.  Such  was  the 
argument  then,  and  it  is  occasionally  heard  to-day,  when 
our  trusts  and  corporations  are  annoyed  by  the  complaints 
and  disaffections  of  their  only  half  ignorant  employes. 

Governor  Minuit  was  not  held  to  be  the  best  man  in  the 
world  for  his  position,  and  he  was  recalled  in  1632,  and  "Wou- 
ter  Van  Twiller,  who  possessed  all  of  his  predecessor's  faults 
and  none  of  his  virtues,  took  his  place.  A  governor  with  the 
American  idea  in  him  would  have  saved  Manhattan  a  great 
deal  of  trouble,  and  perhaps  have  enabled  the  Dutch  to  keep 
their  hold  upon  it ;  but  no  such  governor  was  available,  and 
worse  than  Van  Twiller  was  yet  to  come.  A  colony  had 
already  been  planted  in  Delaware,  but  unjust  dealings  with 
the  Indians  led  to  a  massacre  which  left  nothing  of  the  Cape 
Henlopen  settlement  but  bones  and  charred  timbers.  The 
English  to  the  south  were  led  to  renew  the  assertion  of  their 
never-abandoned  claim  to  the  region ;  there  were  encroach- 
ments by  the  English  settlers  on  the  Connecticut  boundary, 
and  the  Dutch,  deprived  by  the  wars  in  Europe  of  the  sup- 
port of  their  countrymen  at  home,  were  too  feeble  to  do  more 
than  protest.  But  protests  from  those  unable  to  enforce 
them  have  never  been  listened  to  with  favor — not  even  by 
the  English.  Besides,  the  Dutch,  though  amenable  to  relig- 
ious observances,  were  far  from  making  them  the  soul  and 
end  of  all  thought  and  action ;  and  this  lack  of  aggressive 
religious  fiber  put  them  at  a  decided  political  disadvantage 
with  their  rivals.  Man  for  man,  they  were  the  equals  of 


io8  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  English,  or  of  any  other  people;  as  they  magnificently 
demonstrated,  forty  years  afterward,  by  defeating  allied  and 
evil-minded  Europe  in  its  attempt  to  expunge  them  as  a 
nation.  But  the  indomitable  spirit  of  Van  Tromp  and  De 
Ruyter  was  never  awakened  in  the  New  Netherlands;  com- 
mercial considerations  were  paramount;  and  though  the 
Dutch  settlers  remained,  and  were  always  welcome,  the  col- 
ony finally  passed  from  the  jurisdiction  of  their  own  govern- 
ment, with  their  own  expressed  consent. 

Van  Twiller  vanished  after  eight  years'  mismanagement, 
and  the  sanguinary  Kieft  took  the  reins.  But  before  his  in- 
cumbency, Sweden,  at  the  instance  of  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
and  by  the  agency  of  his  chancellor  Oxenstiern,  both  men 
of  the  first  class,  lodged  a  colony  on  Delaware  Bay,  which 
subsisted  for  seventeen  years,  and  was  absorbed,  at  last, 
without  one  stain  upon  its  fair  record.  Minuit,  being  out  of 
a  job,  offered  his  experienced  services  in  bringing  the  emi- 
grating Swedes  and  Finns  to  their  new  abode,  arid  they  be- 
gan their  sojourn  in  1638.  They  were  industrious,  peace- 
able, religious  and  moral,  and  they  declared  against  any 
form  of  slavery.  They  threw  out  a  branch  toward  Phila- 
delphia. But  Gustavus  Adolphus  had  died  at  Luetzen  be- 
fore the  Swedes  came  over,  and  Queen  Christina  had  not 
the  ability  to  carry  out  his  ideas,  even  had  she  possessed 
the  power.  The  Dutch  began  to  dispute  the  rights  of  the 
Scandinavians;  Rysingh  took  their  fort  Casimir  in  1654,  and 
Peter  Stuyvesant  with  six  hundred  men  received  their  sub- 
mission in  the  same  year.  But  this  success  was  of  no  benefit 
to  the  Dutch;  the  tyrannous  monopolies  which  the  Com- 
pany tried  to  establish  in  Delaware,  instead  of  creating  rev- 
enues, caused  the  country  to  be  deserted  by  the  settlers,  who 
betook  themselves  to  the  less  oppressive  English  administra- 
tions to  the  southward ;  and  it  was  not  until  the  English  took 
possession  of  both  Delaware  and  the  rest  of  the  New  Nether- 
lands that  it  began  to  yield  a  fair  return  on  the  investment. 

But  we  must  return  to  the  ill-omened  Kieft.     It  was 


FROM   HUDSON   TO   STUYVESANT  109 

upon  tho  Indian  question  that  he  made  shipwreck,  not  only 
incurring  their  deadly  enmity,  but  alienating  from  himself 
the  sympathies  and  support  of  his  own  countrymen.  The 
Algonquin  tribe,  which  inhabited  the  surrounding  country, 
had  been  constantly  overreached  in  their  trade  with  the 
Dutchmen ;  the  principle  upon  which  barter  was  carried  on 
with  the  untutored  savage  being,  "I'll  take  the  turkey,  and 
you  keep  the  buzzard :  or  you  take  the  buzzard,  and  I'll  keep 
the  turkey."  This  sounded  fair;  but  when  the  Indian  came 
to  examine  his  assets,  it  always  appeared  that  a  buzzard  was 
all  he  could  make  of  it.  Partly,  perhaps,  by  way  of  soften- 
ing the  asperities  of  such  a  discovery,  the  Dutch  merchant 
had  been  wont  to  furnish  his  victim  with  brandy  (not  elee- 
mosynary, of  course) ;  but  the  results  were  disastrous.  The 
Indians,  transported  by  the  alcohol  beyond  the  anything-but- 
restricted  bounds  which  nature  had  imposed  upon  them,  felt 
the  insult  of  the  buzzard  more  keenly  than  ever,  and  signified 
their  resentment  in  ways  consistent  with  their  instincts  and 
traditions.  In  1640  an  army  of  them  fell  upon  the  colony  in 
Staten  Island,  and  slaughtered  them,  man,  woman  and  child, 
with  the  familiar  Indian  accessories  of  tomahawk,  scalping- 
knife  and  torch.  The  Staten  Islanders,  it  should  be  stated, 
had  done  nothing  to  merit  this  treatment;  but  Indian  logic 
interprets  the  legal  maxim  "Qui  facit  per  alium,  facit  per 
se,"  as  meaning  that  if  one  white  man  cheats  him,  he  can 
get  his  satisfaction  out  of  the  next  one  who  happens  in 
sight.  Staten  Island  was  a  definite  and  convenient  area, 
and  when  its  population  had  been  exterminated,  the  Indi- 
ans could  feel  relieved  from  their  obligation.  Not  long  after- 
ward an  incident  such  as  romancers  love  to  feign  actually 
took  place;  an  Indian  brave  who,  as  a  child  years  before, 
had  seen  his  uncle  robbed  and  slain,  and  had  vowed  re- 
venge, now  having  become  of  age,  or  otherwise  qualified 
himself  for  the  enterprise,  went  upon  the  warpath,  and  re- 
turned with  the  long-coveted  scalp  at  his  girdle.  Evidently 
the  time  had  come  for  Governor  Kieft  to  assert  himself. 


no  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

It  was  of  small  avail  to  invade  the  wilds  of  New  Jersey, 
or  to  offer  rewards  for  Raritans,  dead  or  alive.  The  sachems 
were  willing  to  express  their  regret,  but  they  would  not  sur- 
render the  culprits,  and  declared  that  the  Dutchmen's  own 
brandy  was  the  really  guilty  party.  Kieft  would  not  con- 
cede the  point,  and  the  situation  was  strained.  At  this  junc- 
ture, the  unexpected  happened.  The  Mohawks,  a  kingly  tribe 
of  red  men,  who  claimed  all  Northeast  America  from  the  St. 
Lawrence  to  the  Delaware,  and  who  had  already  driven  the 
Algonquins  before  them  like  chaff,  sent  down  a  war  party 
from  northern  New  York,  and  demanded  tribute  from  them. 
There  were  more  Algonquins  than  there  were  Mohawks ;  but 
one  eagle  counts  for  more  than  many  kites.  The  kites  came 
fluttering  to  Fort  Orange  for  protection :  not  so  much  that 
they  feared  death  or  torture,  but  they  were  overawed  by  the 
spirit  of  the  Mohawk,  and  could  not  endure  to  face  him. 
Kieft  fancied  that  he  saw  his  opportunity.  He  would  teach 
the  red  scoundrels  a  lesson  they  would  remember.  There 
was  a  company  of  soldiers  in  the  Fort,  and  in  the  river  were 
moored  some  vessels  with  crews  of  Dutch  privateers  on  board. 
Kieft  made  up  his  party,  and  when  night  had  fallen  he  sent 
them  on  their  bloody  errand,  guided  by  one  who  knew  all  tho 
camps  and  hiding-places  of  the  doomed  tribe.  It  was  a  re- 
volting episode  •  a  hundred  Indians  were  unresistingly  mur- 
dered. They  would  have  made  a  stronger  defense  had  they 
not  been  under  the  impression  that  it  was  the  Mohawks 
who  were  upon  them ;  and  to  be  killed  by  a  Mohawk  was 
no  more  than  an  Algonquin  should  expect.  But  when  it 
transpired  that  the  Dutch  were  the  perpetrators,  the  whole 
nation  gave  way  to  a  double  exasperation:  first,  that  their 
friends  had  been  killed,  and  secondly  that  they  had  suffered 
under  a  misapprehension.  The  settlers,  in  disregard  of  ad- 
vice, were  living  in  scattered  situations  over  a  large  terri- 
tory, and  they  were  all  in  danger,  and  defenseless,  even  if 
New  Amsterdam  itself  could  escape.  Kieft  was  heartily 
cursed  by  all  impartially ;  he  was  compelled  to  make  over- 


FROM   HUDSON   TO   STUYVESANT  in 

tures  for  peace,  and  a  pow-wow  was  held  in  Rockaway 
woods,  in  the  spring  of  1643.  Terms  were  agreed  upon, 
and,  according  to  Indian  usage,  gifts  were  exchanged. 
But  those  of  the  chiefs  so  far  exceeded  in  value  the  offer- 
ings of  Kieft  that  these  were  regarded  as  a  fresh  insult; 
war  was  declared,  and  dragged  along  for  two  years  more. 
It  was  not  until  1645  that  the  grand  meeting  of  the  settlers 
and  the  Five  Nations  took  place  at  Fort  Amsterdam,  and 
the  treaty  of  lasting  peace  was  ratified.  Kieft  sailed  from 
New  Amsterdam  with  the  consciousness  of  having  injured 
his  countrymen  more  than  had  any  enemy;  but  he  was 
drowned  off  the  Welsh  coast,  without  having  brought  forth 
fruits  meet  for  repentance. 

Peter  Stuyvesant  is  a  favorite  character  in  our  history  be- 
cause he  was  a  manly  and  straightforward  man,  faithful  to 
his  employers,  fearless  in  doing  and  saying  what  he  thought 
was  right,  and  endowed  with  a  full  share  of  obstinate, 
homely,  kindly  human  nature.  He  was  not  in  advance  of 
his  age,  or  superior  to  his  training ;  he  was  the  plain  product 
of  both,  but  free  from  selfishness,  malice,  and  unworthy 
ambitions.  He  was  born  in  1602,  and  came  to  America  a 
warrior  from  honorable  wars,  seamed  and  knotty,  with  a 
famous  wooden  leg  which  all  New  Yorkers,  at  any  rate,  love 
to  hear  stumping  down  the  corridors  of  time.  His  adminis- 
tration, the  last  of  the  Dutch  regime,  wiped  out  the  stains 
inflicted  by  his  predecessors,  and  resisted  with  equal  energy 
encroachments  from  abroad  and  innovations  at  home.  He 
was  a  true  Dutchman,  with  most  of  the  limitations  and  all 
the  virtues  of  his  race ;  fond  of  peace  and  of  dwelling  in  his 
own  "Bowery,"  yet  not  afraid  to  fight  when  he  deemed  that 
his  duty.  His  tenure  of  office  lasted  from  1647  till  1664,  a 
period  of  seventeen  active  years;  after  the  English  took 
possession  of  the  town  and  called  it  New  York,  Peter  went 
back  to  Holland,  unwilling  to  live  in  the  presence  of  new 
things;  but  he  found  that,  at  the  age  of  sixty- three,  he 
could  not  be  happy  away  from  the  home  that  he  had  made 


112  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

for  himself  in  the  new  world ;  so  he  returned  to  Manhattan 
Island,  and  completed  the  tale  of  his  eighty  years  on  the 
farm  which  is  now  the  most  populous  and  democratic  of 
New  York's  thoroughfares.  There  he  smoked  his  long- 
stemmed  pipe  and  drank  his  schnapps,  and  thought  over 
old  times,  and  criticised  the  new.  After  two  and  a  half 
centuries,  the  memory  of  him  is  undimmed ;  and  it  is  to 
be  wished  that  some  fitting  memorial  of  him  may  be 
erected  in  the  city  which  his  presence  honored. 

The  very  next  year  after  his  arrival,  free  trade  was 
established  in  New  Amsterdam.  There  had  been  a  strict 
monopoly  till  then ;  but  in  one  way  or  another  it  was  con- 
tinually evaded,  and  the  New  Amsterdam  merchants  found 
themselves  so  much  handicapped  by  the  restrictions,  that 
their  inability  reacted  upon  the  managers  at  home.  There 
were  not  at  that  time  any  infant  industries  in  need  of  pro- 
tection, and  the  colony  was  large  and  capacious  enough  to 
take  what  the  mother  country  sent  it,  and  more  also.  But 
in  order  to  prevent  loss,  an  export  duty  was  enforced,  which 
pressed  lightly  on  those  who  paid  it,  and  comforted  those 
to  whom  it  was  paid.  Commerce  was  greatly  stimulated, 
and  the  merchants  of  old  Amsterdam  sent  compliments  and 
prophesies  of  future  greatness  to  their  brethren  across  the 
sea.  Every  new-hatched  settlement  that  springs  up  on  the 
borders  of  the  wilderness  is  liable  to  be  "hailed"  by  its  pro- 
moters as  destined  to  become  the  Queen  City  of  its  region; 
the  wish  fathers  the  word,  and  the  word  is  an  advertisement. 
But  the  merchant  princes  of  Amsterdam  spoke  by  the  card; 
they  perceived  the  almost  unique  advantages  of  geographi- 
cal position  and  local  facilities  of  their  American  namesake ; 
with  such  a  bay  and  water  front,  with  such  a  river,  with 
such  a  soil  and  such  openings  for  trade,  what  might  it  not 
become!  Yes:  but— "Sic  vos  non  vobis  sedificatis!"  The 
English  reaped  what  the  Dutch  had  sown,  and  New  York 
inherits  the  glory  and  power  predicted  for  New  Amsterdam. 

The  soil  of  Manhattan  Island  being  comparatively  poor, 


FROM   HUDSON    TO   STUYVESANT  113 

the  place  was  destined  to  be  used  as  a  residence  merely,  and 
the  houses  of  prosperous  traders  and  burghers  began  to  as- 
semble and  bear  likeness  to  a  town.  The  primeval  forest  still 
clothed  the  upper  part  of  the  island ;  but  the  visible  presence 
of  a  municipality  in  the  southern  extremity  prompted  the  in- 
habitants to  suggest  a  remodeling  of  the  government  some- 
what after  the  New  England  pattern,  where  patroons  were 
unknown  and  impossible.  It  is  not  surprising  that  sugges- 
tions to  this  effect  from  the  humbler  members  of  the  commu- 
nity were  not  cordially  embraced  by  either  the  patroons  or 
their  creators  at  home ;  in  fact,  it  was  still-born.  That  the 
people  should  rule  themselves  was  as  good  as  to  say  that 
the  horse  should  loll  in  the  carriage  while  his  master  toiled 
between  the  shafts.  The  thing  was  impossible,  and  should 
be  unmentionable.  The  people,  however,  continued  to  men- 
tion it,  and  even  to  neglect  paying  the  taxes  which  had  been 
imposed  with  no  regard  to  their  reasonable  welfare.  A 
deputation  went  to  Holland  to  tell  the  directors  that  they 
could  neither  farm  nor  trade  with  profit  unless  the  bur- 
dens were  lightened ;  the  directors  thought  otherwise,  and 
the  consequence  was  that  devices  were  practiced  to  lighten 
them  illicitly.  This  added  to  the  interest  of  life,  but  sub- 
verted the  welfare  of  the  state.  Where  political  rights  are 
not  secured  to  all  men  by  constitutional  right,  those  who 
are  unable  to  get  them  by  privilege,  intrigue  to  steal  what 
jmch  rights  would  guarantee.  At  this  rate,  there  would 
presently  be  a  Council  of  Ten  and  an  Inquisition  in  New 
Amsterdam.  In  1653,  the  Governor  was  constrained  to 
admit  the  deputies  from  the  various  settlements  to  an 
interview,  in  which  they  said  their  say,  and  he  his.  "We 
havo  come  here  at  our  own  expense,"  they  observed, 
"fro^n  various  countries  of  Europe,  expecting  to  be  given 
projection  while  earning  our  living;  we  have  turned  your 
wilderness  into  a  fruitful  garden  for  you,  and  you,  in 
retuin,  impose  on  us  laws  which  disable  us  from  profiting 
by  our  labor.  We  ask  you  to  repeal  these  laws,  allow  us 


U4  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

to  make  laws  to  meet  our  needs,  and  appoint  none  to 
office  who  has  not  our  approbation."  Thus,  in  substance, 
spoke  the  people;  and  we,  at  the  end  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century,  may  think  they  were  uttering  the  veriest  axi- 
oms of  political  common  sense.  What  sturdy  Peter  Stuy- 
vesant  thought  is  perfectly  expressed  in  what  he  replied. 

"The  old  laws  will  stand.  Directors  and  council  only 
shall  be  law-makers:  never  will  they  make  themselves  re- 
sponsible to  the  people.  As  to  officers  of  government,  were 
their  election  left  to  the  rabble,  we  should  have  thieves  on 
horseback  and  honest  men  on  foot."  And  with  that,  we 
may  imagine,  the  Governor  stamped  his  wooden  toe. 

The  people  shrugged  their  shoulders.  "We  aim  but  at 
the  general  good,"  said  they.  "All  men  have  a  natural 
right  to  constitute  society,  and  to  assemble  to  protect  their 
liberties  and  property." 

"I  declare  this  assembly  dissolved,"  Peter  retorted.  "As- 
semble again  at  your  peril!  The  authority  which  rules  you 
is  derived  not  from  the  whim  of  a  few  ignorant  malcon- 
tents." Alas!  the  seed  of  the  American  Idea  had  never 
germinated  in  Peter's  soldierly  bosom;  and  when  the  West 
India  Company  learned  of  the  dialogue,  they  spluttered  with 

indignation.  "The  people  be  d d!"  was  the  sense  of  their 

message.  "Let  them  no  longer  delude  themselves  with  the 
fantasy  that  taxes  require  their  assent."  With  that,  they 
dismissed  the  matter  from  their  minds.  Yet  even  then,  the 
Writing  was  on  the  wall.  The  flouted  people  were  ripe  to 
welcome  England;  and  England,  in  the  shape  of  Charles 
II.,  who  had  come  at  last  to  his  own,  meditated  wiping  the 
Dutch  off  the  Atlantic  seaboard.  It  availed  not  to  plead 
rights:  Lord  Baltimore  snapped  his  fingers.  Lieutenant- 
governor  Beekman,  indeed,  delayed  the  appropriation  of 
Delaware;  but  Long  Island  was  being  swallowed  up,  and 
nobody  except  the  government  cared.  The  people  may  be 
incompetent  to  frame  laws:  but  what  if  they  decline  to 
fight  for  you  when  called  upon?  If  they  cannot  make 


FROM   HUDSON   TO   STUYVESANT  115 

taxes  to  please  themselves,  at  all  events  they  will  not 
make  war  to  please  anybody  else.  If  they  are  poor  and 
ignorant,  that  is  not  their  fault.  The  English  fleet  was  im- 
pending :  what  was  to  be  done?  Could  Stuyvesant  but  have 
multiplied  himself  into  a  thousand  Stuyvesants,  he  knew 
what  he  would  do;  but  he  was  impotent.  In  August, 
1664,  here  was  the  fleet  actually  anchored  in  Gravesend 
Bay,  with  Nicolls  in  command.  "What  did  they  want?" 
the  Governor  inquired.  "Immediate  recognition  of  English 
sovereignty, ' '  replied  Nicolls  curtly ;  and  the  gentler  voice  of 
"Winthrop  of  Boston  was  heard,  advising  surrender.  "Sur- 
render would  be  reproved  at  home,"  said  poor  Stuyvesant, 
refusing  to  know  when  he  was  beaten.  He  was  doing  his 
best  to  defeat  the  army  and  navy  of  England  single-handed. 
But  the  burgomasters  went  behind  him,  and  capitulated,  and 
— Peter  to  the  contrary  for  four  days  more  notwithstanding — 
New  Amsterdam  became  New  York. 

The  English  courted  favor  by  liberal  treatment  of  their 
new  dependents  on  the  western  shore  of  the  Hudson ;  what- 
ever the  Dutch  had  refused  to  do,  they  did.  The  Governor 
and  Council  were  to  be  balanced  by  the  people's  representa- 
tives ;  no  more  arbitrary  taxation ;  citizens  might  think  and 
pray  as  best  pleased  them ;  land  tenure  was  made  easy,  and 
seventy-five  acres  was  the  bounty  for  each  emigrant  im- 
ported, negroes  included.  By  such  inducements  the  wilder- 
ness of  New  Jersey,  assigned  to  Berkeley  and  Carteret,  was 
peopled  by  Scots,  New  Englanders  and  Quakers.  Settle- 
ment proceeded  rapidly,  and  in  1668  a  colonial  legislature 
met  in  the  town  named  after  Elizabeth  Carteret.  There 
were  so  many  Puritans  in  the  assembly,  and  their  argu- 
ments were  so  convincing,  that  New  Jersey  law  bore  a 
strong  family  resemblance  to  that  of  New  England.  This 
had  its  effect,  when,  in  1670,  the  rent  question  came  up 
for  settlement.  The  Puritans  contended  that  the  Indians 
held  from  Noah,  and  as  they  were  lawful  heirs  of  the 
Indians,  they  declined  to  pay  rents  to  the  English  pro- 


n6  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

prietors.  There  was  no  means  of  compelling  them  to  do 
so,  and  they  had  their  way.  The  Yankees  were  already 
going  ahead. 

Manhattan  did  not  get  treated  quite  so  well.  The  Gov- 
ernor had  everything  his  own  way,  the  council  being  his 
creatures,  and  the  justices  his  appointees.  The  people  were 
permitted  no  voice  in  affairs,  and  might  as  well  have  had 
Stuyvesant  back  again.  After  Nicolls  had  strutted  his 
term,  Lord  Lovelace  came,  and  outdid  him.  His  idea  of 
how  to  govern  was  formulated  in  his  instructions  to  an 
agent:  "Lay  such  taxes,"  said  he,  "as  may  give  them  lib- 
erty for  no  thought  but  how  to  discharge  them."  Lord 
Lovelace  was  an  epigrammatist;  but  in  the  end  he  had 
to  pay  for  his  wit.  He  attempted  to  levy  a  tax  for  de- 
fense, and  was  met  with  refusal;  the  towns  of  Long 
Island  had  not  one  cent  either  for  tribute  or  defense;  his 
lordship  swore  at  them  heartily,  but  they  heeded  him  not; 
and  he  found  himself  in  the  shoes  of  the  ousted  Dutch 
Governor  in  another  sense  than  he  desired.  And  then 
was  poetical  justice  made  complete;  for  who  should  ap- 
pear before  the  helpless  forts  but  Evertsen  with  a  Dutch 
fleet!  New  York,  New  Jersey  and  Delaware  surrendered 
to  him  almost  with  enthusiasm,  and  the  work  of  England 
seemed  to  be  all  undone. 

But  larger  events  were  to  control  the  lesser.  France  and 
England  combined  in  an  iniquitous  conspiracy  to  destroy  the 
Dutch  Republic,  and  swooped  down  upon  the  coast  with  two 
hundred  thousand  men.  The  story  has  often  been  told  how 
the  Dutch,  tenfold  outnumbered,  desperately  and  gloriously 
defended  themselves.  They  finally  swept  the  English  from 
the  seas,  and  patroled  the  Channel  with  a  broom  at  the 
masthead.  By  the  terms  of  the  treaty  of  peace  which 
Charles  was  obliged  by  his  own  parliament  to  make,  all 
conquests  were  mutually  restored,  and  New  York  conse- 
quently reverted  to  England.  West  Jersey  was  bought 
by  the  Quakers;  the  eastern  half  of  the  province  was  re- 


FROM   HUDSON   TO   STUYVESANT  117 

stored  to  the  rule  of  Carteret.  The  Atlantic  coast,  from 
Canada  down  to  Florida,  continuously,  was  English 
ground,  and  so  remained  until,  a  century  later,  the 
transplanted  spirit  of  liberty,  born  in  England,  threw 
down  the  gauntlet  to  the  spirit  of  English  tyranny, 
and  won  independence  for  the  United  States. 

When  we  remember  that  the  Dutch  maintained  their 
government  in  the  new  world  for  little  more  than  fifty 
years,  it  is  surprising  how  deep  a  mark  they  made  there. 
It  is  partly  because  their  story  lends  itself  to  picturesque 
and  graphic  treatment;  it  is  so  rich  in  character  and 
color,  and  telling  in  incident.  Then,  too,  it  has  a  begin- 
ning, middle  and  end,  which  is  what  historians  as  well  as 
romancers  love.  But  most  of  all,  perhaps,  their  brief 
chronicles  as  a  distinct  political  phenomenon  illustrate  the 
profound  problem  of  self-government  in  mankind.  The 
Netherlander  had  proved,  before  any  of  them  came  hither, 
with  what  inflexible  courage  they  could  resent  foreign 
tyranny;  and  the  municipalities,  as  well  as  the  nation, 
had  grasped  the  principles  of  independence.  But  it  was 
not  until  they  erected  their  little  commonwealth  amid  the 
forests  of  the  Hudson  that  they  awakened  to  the  conception 
that  every  man  should  bear  his  part  in  the  government  of 
all.  To  attain  this,  it  was  necessary  to  break  through  a 
crust  of  conservatism  almost  as  stubborn  as  that  of  Spain. 
The  authority  of  their  upper  classes  had  never  been  ques- 
tioned; the  idea  had  never  been  entertained  that  a  citizen 
in  humble  lif  e  could  claim  any  right  to  influence  the  con- 
ditions under  which  his  life  should  be  carried  on.  That 
innate  and  inalienable  right  of  the  individual  to  life,  lib- 
erty, and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  which  Jefferson  as- 
serted, and  which  has  become  an  axiom  to  every  Ameri- 
can school-boy,  does  not  appear,  upon  investigation,  to  be 
either  inalienable  or  innate.  The  history  of  mankind  shows 
that  it  has  been  constantly  alienated  from  them ;  and  if  we 
pass  in  review  the  population  of  the  world,  from  the  oldest 


ii8  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

to  contemporary  times,  and  from  savage  tribes  to  the  most 
highly  civilized  nations,  we  find  the  plebeian  bowing  before 
the  patrician,  the  poor  man  serving  the  wealthy.  The  con- 
ception of  human  equality  before  the  law  is  not  a  congenital 
endowment,  but  an  accomplishment,  arduously  acquired  and 
easily  forfeited.  The  first  impulse  of  weakness  in  the  pres- 
ence of  strength  is  to  bow  down  before  it ;  it  is  the  impulse 
of  the  animal,  and  of  the  unspiritual,  the  unregenerate 
nature  in  man.  The  ability  to  recognize  the  solidarity  of 
man,  and  therefore  the  equality  of  spiritual  manhood,  in- 
volves an  uplifting  of  the  mind,  an  illumination  of  the 
soul,  which  can  be  regarded  as  the  result  of  nothing  less 
than  a  revelation.  It  is  not  developed  from  below — it  is 
received  from  above ;  it  is  a  divine  whisper  in  the  ear  of 
fallen  man,  transfiguring  him,  and  opening  before  him  the 
way  of  life.  It  postulates  no  loss  of  humility;  it  does  not 
disturb  the  truth  that  some  must  serve  and  some  must 
direct;  that  some  shall  have  charge  over  many  things, 
and  some  over  but  few.  It  does  not  supersede  the  out- 
ward order  of  society.  But  it  affirms  that  to  no  man  or 
body  of  men,  no  matter  how  highly  endowed  by  nature  or 
circumstance  with  intellect,  position  or  riches,  shall  be  ac- 
corded the  right  to  dispose  arbitrarily  of  the  lives  and 
welfare  of  the  masses.  Not  elsewhere  than  in  the  hands 
of  the  entire  community  shall  be  lodged  the  reins  of  gov- 
ernment. The  administration  shall  be  with  the  chosen 
ones  whose  training  and  qualifications  fit  them  for  that 
function;  but  the  principles  on  which  their  administra- 
tion is  conducted  shall  be  determined  by  the  will  and 
vote  of  all. 

This  is  not  lightly  to  be  believed  or  understood ;  Peter 
Stuy  vesant  voiced  the  unenlightened  thought  when  he  said 
that,  should  the  rabble  rule,  order  and  honesty  must  be 
overthrown.  This  is  the  inevitable  conclusion  of  mate- 
rialistic logic.  Like  produces  like;  evil,  evil;  ignorance, 
ignorance.  Only  by  inspired  faith  will  the  experiment  be 


tried  of  trusting  the  Creator  to  manifest  His  purposes,  not 
by  the  conscious  wisdom  of  any  man  or  men,  but  through 
the  unconscious,  organic  tendency,  mental  and  moral,  of 
universal  man.  We  may  call  it  "the  tendency,  not  our- 
selves,  which  makes  for  righteousness";  or  we  may  ana- 
lyze it  into  the  resultant  of  innumerable  forces,  taking  a 
direction  independent  of  them  all;  or  we  may  say  simply 
that  it  is  the  Divine  method  of  leading  us  upward;  it  is 
all  one.  Universal  suffrage  is  an  act  of  faith;  and,  faith- 
fully carried  out,  it  brings  political  and  religious  emancipa- 
tion to  the  people.  How  far  it  has  been  carried  out  in 
this  country  is  a  question  we  shall  have  to  answer  here- 
after; we  may  say  here  that  our  forefathers  realized  its 
value,  and  gave  to  us  in  our  Constitution  the  mechanism 
whereby  to  practice  it.  To  it  they  added  the  memory  of 
their  courage  and  their  sacrifices  in  its  behalf;  and  more 
than  this  was  not  theirs  to  give. 

The  English  Puritans  received  their  revelation  in  one 
way ;  the  Dutch  traders  and  farmers  in  another ;  but  it  was 
the  same  revelation.  To  neither  could  it  be  imparted  in 
Europe,  but  only  in  the  virgin  solitudes  of  an  untrodden 
continent.  There  man,  already  civilized,  was  enabled  to 
perceive  +he  inefficiency  and  distortion  of  his  civilization, 
and  to  grasp  the  cure.  Hudson,  an  Englishman,  but  at 
the  moment  in  Dutch  service,  opened  the  gates  to  the 
Netherlanders,  and  thus  enabled  their  emigrants  to  per- 
fect the  work  of  emancipation  which  had  been  brought 
to  the  highest  stage  it  could  reach  at  home.  They  were 
opposed  by  the  directors  in  Amsterdam,  by  their  own  gov- 
ernors and  patroons,  and  by  the  errors  which  immemorial 
usage  had  ingrained  in  them  as  individuals.  They  over- 
came these  forces,  not  by  their  own  strength,  nor  by  any 
violent  act  of  revolution,  but  by  the  slow,  irresistible 
energy  of  natural  law,  with  which,  as  with  a  gravita- 
tave  force,  they  had  placed  themselves  in  harmony.  Thus 
they  exemplified  one  of  the  several  ways  in  which  freedom 


120  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

comes  to  man,  and  took  their  place  as  a  component  element 
in  the  limitless  cosmopolitanism  of  our  population. 

Their  subsequent  history  shows  that  nothing  truly  valu- 
able is  lost  in  democracy.  The  high  behavior  and  dig- 
nified manners  which  belonged  to  their  patroons  may  be 
observed  among  their  descendants  in  contemporary  New 
York;  the  men  whose  ancestors  controlled  a  thousand  ten- 
ants have  not  lost  the  power  of  handling  large  matters  hi  a 
large  spirit ;  but  they  exercise  it  now  for  worthier  ends  than 
of  old.  Similarly,  the  Dutch  stolidity  which  amuses  us  in 
the  chronicles,  reappears  to-day  hi  the  form  of  steadiness 
aud  judgment ;  the  obstinacy  of  headstrong  Peter,  as  self- 
confidence  and  perseverance ;  the  physical  grossness  of  the 
old  burghers,  as  constitutional  vigor.  Many  of  their  cus- 
toms too  have  come  down  to  us;  their  heavy  afternoon 
teas  are  recalled  in  our  informal  receptions;  their  New 
Year's  Day  sociability  in  our  calls,  their  Christmas  cele- 
brations in  our  festival  of  Santa  Glaus.  Much  of  our 
domestic  architecture  reflects  their  influence:  the  gabled 
fronts,  the  tiled  fireplaces,  the  high  "stoops,"  and  the  cus- 
tom of  sitting  on  them  in  summer  evenings.  In  general  it 
is  seen  that  the  effect  of  democratic  institutions  is  to  save 
the  grain  and  reject  the  chaff,  because  criticism  becomes 
more  close  and  punctual,  abuses  and  license  are  not  char- 
tered, and  the  individual  is  bereft  of  artificial  supports  and 
disguises,  and  must  appear  more  nearly  as  God  made  him. 


CHAPTER   FIFTH 

LIBERTY,    SLAVERY,   AND   TYRANNY 

E  LEFT  the  colony  at  Jamestown  emerging 
from  thick  darkness  and  much  tribulation 
toward  the  light.  Some  distance  was  still 
to  be  traversed  before  full  light  and  ease- 
ment were  attained;  but  fortune,  upon  the 
whole,  was  kinder  to  Virginia  than  to  most 
of  the  other  settlements;  and  though  clouds 
gathered  darkly  now  and  then,  and  storms  threatened,  and 
here  and  there  a  bolt  fell,  yet  deliverance  came  beyond  ex- 
pectation. Something  Virginia  suffered  from  Royal  gov- 
ernors, something  from  the  Indians,  something  too  from 
the  imprudence  and  wrong-headedness  of  her  own  people. 
But  her  story  is  full  of  stirring  and  instructive  passages. 
It  tells  how  a  community  chiefly  of  aristocratic  constitu- 
tion and  sympathies,  whose  loyalty  to  the  English  throne 
was  deep  and  ardent,  and  whose  type  of  life  was  patri- 
cian, nevertheless  were  won  insensibly  and  inevitably  to 
espouse  the  principles  of  democracy.  It  shows  how,  with 
honest  men,  a  king  may  be  loved,  and  the  system  which 
he  stands  for  reverenced  and  defended,  while  yet  the 
lovers  and  apologists  choose  and  maintain  a  wholly  differ- 
ent system  for  themselves.  The  House  of  Stuart  had  none 
but  friends  in  Virginia ;  when  the  son  of  Charles  the  First 
was  a  fugitive,  Virginia  offered  him  a  home ;  and  the  follies 
and  frailties  of  his  father,  and  the  grotesque  chicaneries  of 
his  grandfather,  could  not  alienate  the  colonists'  affection. 
U.S.— 6  VOL.  T 


122  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

Yet,  from  the  moment  their  Great  Charter  was  given  them, 
they  never  ceased  to  defend  the  liberties  which  it  bestowed 
against  every  kingly  effort  to  curtail  or  destroy  them;  and 
on  at  least  one  occasion  they  fairly  usurped  the  royal  pre- 
rogative. They  presented,  in  short,  the  striking  anomaly  of 
a  people  acknowledging  a  monarch  and  at  the  same  time 
claiming  the  fullest  measure  of  political  liberty  till  then 
enjoyed  by  any  community  in  modern  history.  They  them- 
selves perceived  no  inconsistency  in  their  attitude ;  but  to  us 
it  is  patent,  and  its  meaning  is  that  the  sentiment  of  a  tra- 
dition may  be  cherished  and  survive  long  after  intelligence 
and  experience  have  caused  the  thing  itself  to  be  consigned 
to  the  rubbish-heap  of  the  past. 

So  long  as  Sir  Thomas  Smythe  occupied  the  president's 
chair  of  the  London  Company,  there  could  be  no  hope  of 
substantial  prosperity  for  the  Jamestown  emigrants.  He 
was  a  selfish  and  conceited  satrap,  incapable  of  enlight- 
ened thought  or  beneficent  action,  who  knew  no  other  way 
to  magnify  his  .own  importance  than  by  suffocating  the 
rights  and  insulting  the  self-respect  of  others.  He  had  a 
protege  in  Argall,  a  disorderly  ruffian  who  was  made 
deputy-governor  of  the  colony  in  1617.  His  administra- 
tion was  that  of  a  freebooter;  but  the  feeble  and  dwin- 
dling colony  had  neither  power  nor  spirit  to  do  more  than 
send  a  complaint  to  London.  Lord  Delaware  had  in  the 
meantime  sailed  for  Virginia,  but  died  on  the  trip;  Argall 
was,  however,  dismissed,  and  Sir  George  Yeardley  substi- 
tuted for  him — a  man  of  gracious  manners  and  generous 
nature,  but  somewhat  lacking  in  the  force  and  firmness 
that  should  build  up  a  state.  He  had  behind  him  the 
best  men  in  the  company  if  not  in  all  England:  Sir 
Edward  Sandys,  the  Earl  of  Southampton,  and  Nicolas 
Ferrar.  Smythe  had  had  resignation  forced  upon  him, 
and  with  him  the  evil  influences  in  the  management  re- 
tired to  the  background.  Sandys  was  triumphantly  elected 
governor  and  treasurer,  with  Ferrar  as  corporation  coun- 


TREPANNING"  MEN  TO  BE  SENT  TO  THE  COLONIES 


LIBERTY,  SLAVERY,  AND   TYRANNY  123 

gel;  Southampton  was  a  powerful  supporter.  They  were 
all  young  men,  all  royalists,  and  all  unselfishly  devoted  to 
the  cause  of  human  liberty  and  welfare.  Virginia  never 
had  better  or  more  urgent  friends. 

Yeardley,  on  his  arrival,  found  distress  and  discourage- 
ment, and  hardly  one  man  remaining  in  the  place  of  twenty. 
The  colonists  had  been  robbed  both  by  process  of  law  and 
without;  they  had  been  killed  and  had  died  of  disease; 
they  had  deserted  and  been  deported;  they  had  been  de- 
nied lands  of  their  own,  or  the  benefit  of  their  own  labor; 
and  they  had  been  permitted  no  part  in  the  management 
of  their  own  affairs.  The  rumor  of  these  injuries  and  dis- 
abilities had  got  abroad,  and  no  recruits  for  the  colony  had 
been  obtainable ;  the  Indians  were  ill-disposed,  and  the  houses 
poor  and  few.  Women  too  were  lamentably  scanty,  and  the 
people  had  no  root  in  the  country,  and  no  thought  but  to 
leave  it.  Like  the  emigrants  to  the  Klondike  gold-fields 
in  our  own  day,  they  had  designed  only  to  better  their 
fortunes  and  then  depart.  The  former  hope  was  gone; 
the  latter  was  all  that  was  left. 

Yeardley's  business,  in  the  premises,  was  agreeable  and 
congenial ;  he  had  a  letter  from  the  company  providing  for 
the  abatement  of  past  evils  and  abuses,  and  the  establish- 
ment of  justice,  security  and  happiness.  He  sent  messen- 
gers far  and  wide,  summoning  a  general  meeting  to  hear 
his  news  and  confer  together  for  the  common  weal. 

Hardly  venturing  to  believe  that  any  good  thing  could 
be  in  store  for  them,  the  burgesses  and  others  assembled, 
and  crowded  into  the  place  of  meeting.  Twenty-two  dele- 
gates from  the  eleven  plantations  were  there,  clad  in  their 
dingy  and  dilapidated  raiment,  and  wide-brimmed  hats; 
most  of  them  with  swords  at  their  sides,  and  some  with 
rusty  muskets  in  their  hands.  Their  cheeks  were  lank  and 
their  faces  sunburned ;  their  bearing  was  listless,  yet  marked 
with  some  touch  of  curiosity  and  expectation.  There  were 
among  them  some  well-filled  brows  and  strong  features, 


124 


announcing  men  of  ability  and  thoughtfulness,  though 
they  had  lacked  the  opportunity  and  the  cue  for  action. 
Their  long  days  on  the  plantations,  and  their  uneasy 
nights  in  the  summer  heats,  had  given  them  abundant 
leisure  to  think  over  their  grievances  and  misfortunes,  and 
to  dream  of  possible  reforms  and  innovations.  But  of  what 
profit  was  it?  Their  governors  had  no  thought  but  to  fill 
their  own  pockets,  the  council  was  powerless  or  treacherous, 
and  everything  was  slipping  away. 

It  was  in  the  depths  of  summer — the  30th  of  July,  1619. 
More  than  a  year  was  yet  to  pass  before  the  "Mayflower" 
would  enter  the  wintry  shelter  of  Plymouth  harbor.  In  the 
latitude  of  Jamestown  the  temperature  was  almost  tropical 
at  this  season,  and  exhausting  to  body  and  spirit.  The  room 
in  which  they  met,  in  the  governor's  house  in  Jamestown, 
was  hardly  spacious  enough  for  their  accommodation :  four 
unadorned  walls,  with  a  ceiling  that  could  be  touched  by  an 
upraised  hand.  It  had  none  of  the  aspect  of  a  hall  of  legis- 
lature, much  less  of  one  in  which  was  to  take  place  an  event 
so  large  and  memorable  as  the  birth  of  liberty  in  a  new 
world.  But  the  delegates  thronged  in,  and  were  greeted 
at  their  entrance  by  Yeardley,  who  stood  at  a  table  near 
the  upper  end  of  the  room,  with  a  secretary  beside  him  and 
a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England  on  his  other  hand. 
The  colonists  looked  at  his  urbane  and  conciliating  counte- 
nance, and  glanced  at  the  document  he  held  in  his  hand,  and 
wondered  what  would  be  the  issue.  Nothing  of  moment, 
doubtless;  still,  they  could  scarcely  be  much  worse  off  than 
they  were;  and  the  new  governor  certainly  had  the  air  of 
having  something  important  to  communicate.  They  took 
their  places,  leaning  against  the  walls,  or  standing  with 
their  hands  clasped  over  the  muzzles  of  their  muskets,  or 
supporting  one  foot  upon  a  bench;  and  the  gaze  of  all  was 
concentrated  on  the  governor.  As  he  opened  the  paper,  a 
silence  fell  upon  the  assembly. 

Such,  we  may  imagine,  were  the  surroundings  and 


LIBERTY,  SLAVERY,  AND   TYRANNY  125 

* 

cumstances  of  this  famous  gathering,  the  transactions  of 
which  fill  so  bright  a  page  in  the  annals  of  the  early  colo- 
nies. The  governor  asked  the  clergyman  for  a  blessing, 
and  when  the  prayer  was  done  suggested  the  choosing  of  a 
chairman,  or  speaker.  The  choice  fell  upon  John  Pory,  a 
member  of  the  former  council.  Then  the  governor  read 
his  letter  from  the  company  in  London. 

The  letter,  in  few  words,  opened  the  door  to  every  reform 
which  could  make  the  colony  free,  prosperous  and  happy, 
and  declared  all  past  wrongs  at  an  end.  It  merely  out- 
lined the  scope  of  the  improvements,  leaving  it  to  the  col- 
onists themselves  to  fill  in  the  details.  "Those  cruel  laws 
were  abrogated,  and  they  were  to  be  governed  by  those 
free  laws  under  which  his  majesty's  subjects  in  England 
lived."  An  annual  grand  assembly,  consisting  of  the  gov- 
ernor and  council  and  two  burgesses  from  each  planta- 
tion, chosen  by  the  people,  was  to  be  held;  and  at  these 
assemblies  they  were  to  frame  whatever  laws  they  deemed 
proper  for  their  welfare.  These  concessions  were  of  the 
more  value  and  effect,  because  they  were  advocated  in 
England  by  men  who  had  only  the  good  of  the  colony  at 
heart,  and  possessed  power  to  enforce  their  will. 

It  seemed  almost  too  good  to  be  true :  it  was  like  the  sun 
rising  after  the  long  arctic  night.  Those  sad  faces  flushed, 
and  the  moody  eyes  kindled.  The  burgesses  straightened 
their  backs  and  lifted  their  heads;  they  looked  at  one  an- 
other, and  felt  that  they  were  once  more  men.  There  was 
a  murmur  of  joy  and  congratulation;  and  thanks  were 
uttered  to  God,  and  to  the  Company,  for  what  had  been 
done.  And  forthwith  they  set  to  work  with  life  and 
energy,  and  with  a  judgment  and  foresight  which  were 
hardly  to  have  been  looked  for  in  legislators  so  untried,  to 
construct  the  platform  of  enactments  upon  which  the  com- 
monwealth of  Virginia  was  henceforth  to  stand. 

From  the  body  of  the  delegates,  two  committees  were 
selected  to  devise  the  new  laws  and  provisions,  while  the 


126  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

governor  and  the  rest  reviewed  the  laws  already  in  exist- 
ence, to  determine  what  part  of  them,  if  any,  was  suitable 
for  continuance.  Among  the  articles  agreed  upon  were 
regulations  relating  to  distribution  and  tenure  of  land, 
which  replaced  all  former  patents  and  privileges,  and  set 
all  holders  on  an  equal  footing:  the  recognition  of  the 
Church  of  England  as  governing  the  mode  of  worship  in 
Virginia,  with  a  good  salary  for  clergymen  and  an  injunc- 
tion that  all  and  sundry  were  to  appear  at  church  every 
Sunday,  and  bring  their  weapons  with  them — thus  insur- 
ing Heaven  a  fair  hearing,  while  at  the  same  time  making 
provision  against  the  insecurity  of  carnal  things.  The  wives 
of  the  planters  as  well  as  their  husbands  were  capacitated 
to  own  land,  because,  in  a  new  world,  a  woman  might  turn 
out  to  be  as  efficient  as  the  man.  This  sounds  almost  pro- 
phetic; but  it  was  probably  intended  to  operate  on  the 
cultivation  of  the  silkworm.  Plantations  of  the  mulberry 
had  been  ordered,  and  culture  of  the  cocoon  was  an  in- 
dustry fitting  to  the  gentler  sex,  who  were  the  more 
likely  to  succeed  in  it  on  account  of  their  known  parti- 
ality for  the  product.  On  the  other  hand,  excess  in 
apparel  was  kept  within  bounds  by  a  tax.  The  planting 
of  vines  was  also  ordered ;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  man- 
ufacture of  neither  wine  nor  silk  was  destined  to  succeed  in 
the  colony;  tobacco  and  cotton  were  to  be  its  staples,  but 
the  latter  had  not  at  this  epoch  been  attempted.  Order 
and  propriety  among  the  colonists  were  assured  by  penalties 
on  gaming,  drunkenness,  and  sloth ;  and  the  better  to  guard 
against  the  proverbial  wiles  of  Satan,  a  university  was 
sketched  out,  and  direction  was  given  that  such  children 
of  the  heathen  as  showed  indications  of  latent  talent  should 
be  caught,  tamed  and  instructed,  and  employed  as  mis- 
sionaries among  their  tribes.  Finally,  a  fixed  price  of  three 
shillings  for  the  best  quality  of  tobacco,  and  eighteen  pence 
for  inferior  brands,  was  appointed;  thus  giving  the  colony 
a  currency  which  had  the  double  merit  of  being  a  sound 


LIBERTY,  SLAVERY,  AND   TYRANNY  127 

medium  for  traffic,  and  an  agreeable  consolation  and  incense 
when  the  labors  of  the  day  were  past. 

It  was  a  good  day's  work;  and  the  assembly  dissolved 
with  the  conviction  that  their  time  had  never  before  been 
passed  to  such  advantage.  Yeardley,  knowing  the  disposi- 
tion of  the  managers  in  London,  opposed  no  objection  to 
the  immediate  practical  enforcement  of  the  new  enact- 
ments; and  indeed  Sandys,  when  he  had  an  opportunity 
of  examining  the  digest,  expressed  the  opinion  that  it  had 
been  "well  and  judiciously  formed."  The  colonists,  for 
their  part,  dismissed  all  anxieties  and  shadows  from  their 
minds,  and  fell  to  putting  in  crops  and  putting  up  dwell- 
ings as  men  will  who  have  a  stake  in  their  country,  and 
feel  that  they  can  live  in  it.  Their  confidence  was  not 
misplaced ;  within  a  year  from  this  time  the  number  of  the 
colonists  had  been  more  than  doubled,  and  all  troubles 
seemed  at  an  end. 

So  long,  however,  as  James  I.  disgraced  the  throne  of 
England,  popular  liberties  could  never  be  quite  sure  of 
immunity;  and  during  the  five  or  six  years  that  he  still 
had  to  live,  he  did  his  best  to  disturb  the  felicity  of  his 
Virginian  subjects.  He  was  unable  to  do  anything  very 
serious,  and  what  he  did  do,  was  in  contravention  of  law. 
He  got  Sandys  out  of  the  presidency ;  but  Southampton  was 
immediately  put  in  his  place ;  he  tried  to  get  away  the  pat- 
ent which  he  himself  had  issued,  and  finally  did  so ;  but  the 
colony  kept  its  laws  and  its  freedom,  though  the  Throne 
thenceforward  appointed  the  governors.  He  put  a  heavy 
tax  on  tobacco,  which  he  professed  to  regard  as  an  inven- 
tion of  the  enemy;  and  he  countenanced  an  attempt  by 
Lord  Warwick,  in  behalf  of  Argall,  to  continue  martial 
law  in  the  colony  instead  of  allowing  trial  by  Jury;  but 
in  this  he  was  defeated.  He  sent  out  two  commissioners 
to  Virginia  to  discover  pretexts  for  harassing  it,  and  took 
the  matter  out  of  the  hands  of  Parliament;  but  the  Vir- 
ginians maintained  themselves  until  death  stepped  in  and 


128  HISTORY   OP   THE   UNITED   STATES 

put  a  final  stop  to  his  majesty's  industry,  and  Charles  I. 
came  to  the  throne. 

The  climate  of  Virginia  does  not  predispose  to  exertion; 
yet  farming  involves  hard  physical  work;  and,  beyond  any- 
thing else,  the  wealth  of  Virginia  was  derived  from  farming. 
Manufactures  had  not  come  in  view,  and  were  discouraged 
or  forbidden  by  English  decree.  But,  as  we  saw  in  the  early 
days  of  Jamestown,  the  settlers  there  were  unused  to  work, 
and  averse  from  it;  although,  under  the  stimulus  of  Cap- 
tain John  Smith,  they  did  learn  how  to  chop  down  trees. 
After  the  colony  became  popular,  and  populous,  the  emi- 
grants continued  to  be  hi  a  large  measure  of  a  social  class 
to  whom  manual  labor  is  unattractive.  A  country  in  which 
laborers  are  indispensable,  and  which  is  inhabited  by  persons 
disinclined  to  labor,  would  seem  to  stand  no  good  chance  of 
achieving  prosperity.  How,  then,  is  the  early  prosperity  of 
Virginia  to  be  explained  ?  The  charter  did  not  make  men 
work. 

It  was  due  to  the  employment  of  slave  labor.  Slaves  in 
the  Seventeenth  Century  were  easily  acquired,  and  were  of 
several  varieties.  At  one  time,  there  were  more  white  slaves 
than  black.  White  captives  were  often  sold  into  slavery; 
and  there  was  also  a  regular  trade  in  indentured  slaves,  or 
servants,  sent  from  England.  These  were  to  work  out  their 
freedom  by  a  certain  number  of  years  of  labor  for  their 
purchaser.  Convicts  from  the  prisons  were  also  utilized 
as  slaves.  In  the  same  year  that  the  Virginia  charter  be- 
stowed political  freedom  upon  the  colonists,  a  Dutch  ship 
landed  a  batch  of  slaves  from  the  Guinea  coast,  where  the 
Dutch  had  a  footing.  They  were  strong  fellows,  and  the 
ardor  of  the  climate  suited  them  better  than  that  of  the  re- 
gions further  north.  Negroes  soon  came  to  be  in  demand 
therefore;  they  did  not  die  in  captivity  as  the  Indians  were 
apt  to  do,  and  a  regular  trade  in  them  was  presently  estab- 
lished. A  negro  fetched  in  the  market  more  than  twice  as 
much  as  either  a  red  or  a  white  man,  and  repaid  the  invest- 


LIBERTY,  SLAVERY,  AND   TYRANNY  129 

ment.  There  was  no  general  sentiment  against  traffic  in 
human  beings,  and  it  was  not  settled  that  negroes  were 
human,  exactly.  Slavery  at  all  events  had  been  the  normal 
condition  of  Guinea  negroes  from  the  earliest  times,  and 
they  undoubtedly  were  worse  treated  by  their  African  than 
by  their  European  and  American  owners.  They  were  born 
slaves,  or  at  least  in  slavery.  There  had  of  course  been 
enlightened  humanitarians  as  far  back  as  the  Greek  and 
Roman  eras,  who  had  opined  that  the  principle  of  slavery 
was  wrong;  and  such  men  were  talking  still;  but  ordinary 
people  regarded  their  deliverances  as  being  in  the  nature  of 
a  counsel  of  perfection,  which  was  not  intended  to  be  ob- 
served in  practice.  There  are  fashions  in  humanitarianism, 
as  in  other  matters,  and  multitudes  who  denounced  slavery 
in  the  first  half  of  this  Nineteenth  Century,  were  in  no 
respect  better  practical  moralists  than  were  the  Virginians 
two  hundred  years  before.  But  the  time  had  to  come,  in 
the  course  of  human  events,  when  negro  slavery  was  to 
cease  in  America;  and  those  whose  business  interests,  or 
sentimental  prejudices,  were  opposed  to  it,  added  the  cho- 
rus of  their  disapproval  to  the  inscrutable  movements  of 
a  Power  above  all  prejudices.  Negro  slavery,  as  an  overt 
institution,  is  no  more  in  these  States;  but  he  would  be  a 
bold  or  a  blind  man  who  should  maintain  that  slavery, 
both  black  and  white,  has  no  existence  among  us  to-day. 
Meanwhile  the  Seventeenth  Century  planters  of  Virginia 
bought  and  sold  their  human  chattels  with  an  untroubled 
conscience;  and  the  latter,  comprehending  even  less  of  the 
ethics  of  the  question  than  their  masters  did,  were  reason- 
ably happy.  They  were  not  aware  that  human  nature  was 
being  insulted  and  degraded  in  their  persons:  they  were 
transported  by  no  moral  indignation.  When  they  were 
flogged,  they  suffered,  but  when  their  bodies  stopped  smart- 
ing, no  pain  rankled  in  their  minds.  They  were  treated 
like  animals,  and  became  like  them.  They  had  no  anxi- 
eties; they  looked  neither  forward  nor  backward;  their 


130  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

physical  necessities  were  provided  for.  White  slavery 
gradually  disappeared,  but  the  feeling  prevailed  that  slav- 
ery was  what  negroes  were  intended  for.  The  planters, 
after  a  few  generations,  came  to  feel  a  sort  of  affection  for 
their  bondsmen  who  had  been  born  on  the  estates  and 
handed  down  from  father  to  son.  Self-interest,  as  well  as 
natural  kindliness,  rendered  deliberate  cruelties  rare.  The 
negroes,  on  the  other  hand,  often  loved  their  masters,  and 
would  grieve  to  leave  them.  The  evils  of  slavery  were  not 
on  the  surface,  but  were  subtle,  latent,  and  far  more  ma- 
lignant than  was  even  recently  realized^  The  Abolitionists 
thought  the  trouble  was  over  when  the  Proclamation  of 
Emancipation  was  signed.  "We  can  put  on  our  coats  and 
go  home,  now,"  said  Garrison;  and  Wendell  Phillips  said, 
"I  know  of  no  man  to-day  who  can  fold  his  arms  and  look 
forward  to  his  future  with  more  confidence  than  the  negro." 
We  shall  have  occasion  to  investigate  the  intelligence  of 
these  forecasts  by-and-by.  But  there  is  something  striking 
in  the  fact  that  that  country  which  claims  to  be  the  freest 
and  most  highly  civilized  in  the  world  should  be  the  last  to 
give  up  "the  peculiar  institution."  How  can  devotion  to  lib- 
erty co-exist  in  the  mind  with  advocacy  of  servitude?  This, 
too,  is  a  subject  to  which  we  must  revert  hereafter.  At  the 
period  we  are  now  treating,  there  were  more  white  than 
black  slaves,  and  the  princely  estates  of  later  times  had  not 
been  thought  of.  Indeed,  in  spite  of  their  marriage  to  lib- 
erty, the  colonists  did  not  yet  feel  truly  at  home.  Marriage 
of  a  more  concrete  kind  was  needed  for  that. 

This  defect  was  understood  in  England,  and  the  Com- 
pany took  means  to  remedy  it.  A  number  of  desirable  and 
blameless  young  women  were  enlisted  to  go  out  to  the  colony 
and  console  the  bachelors  there.  The  plan  was  discreetly 
carried  out;  the  acquisition  of  the  young  ladies  was  not 
made  too  easy,  so  that  neither  was  their  self-respect 
wounded,  nor  were  the  bachelors  allowed  to  feel  that 
beauty  and  virtue  in  female  form  were  commonplace  com* 


LIBERTY,  SLAVERY    AND   TYRANNY  131 

modifies.  The  romance  and  difficulty  of  the  situation  were 
fairly  well  preserved.  There  stood  the  possible  bride;  but 
she  was  available  only  with  her  own  consent  and  approval ; 
and  before  entering  the  matrimonial  estate,  the  bridegroom 
elect  must  pay  all  charges — so  many  pounds  of  tobacco.  And 
how  many  pounds  of  tobacco  was  a  good  wife  worth?  From 
one  point  of  view,  more  than  was  ever  grown  in  Virginia; 
but  the  sentimental  aspect  of  the  transaction  had  to  be  left 
out  of  consideration,  or  the  enterprise  would  have  come  to 
an  untimely  conclusion.  From  one  hundred  to  one  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds  of  the  weed  was  the  average  commercial 
figure;  it  paid  expenses  and  gave  the  agents  a  commission; 
for  the  rest,  the  profit  was  all  the  colonist's.  Many  a  happy 
home  was  founded  in  this  way,  and,  so  far  as  we  know, 
there  were  no  divorces  and  no  scandals.  But  it  must  not 
be  forgotten  that,  although  tobacco  was  paid  for  the  wife, 
there  was  still  enough  left  to  fill  a  quiet  pipe  by  the  conju- 
gal fireside.  They  were  the  first  Christian  firesides  where 
this  soothing  goddess  had  presided :  no  wonder  they  were 
peaceful ! 

Charles  I.  was  a  young  man,  with  a  large  responsibility 
on  his  shoulders ;  and  two  leading  convictions  in  his  mind. 
The  first  was  that  he  ought  to  be  the  absolute  head  of  the 
nation ;  Parliament  might  take  counsel  with  him,  but  should 
not  control  him  when  it  came  to  action.  The  same  notion 
had  prevailed  with  James  I.,  and  was  to  be  the  immediate 
occasion  of  the  downfall  of  James  II.;  as  for  Charles  II., 
his  long  experience  of  hollow  oak  trees,  and  secret  chambers 
in  the  houses  of  loyalists,  had  taught  him  the  limitations 
of  the  kingly  prerogative  before  he  began  his  reign;  and 
the  severed  head  of  his  father  clinched  the  lesson.  But  the 
Stuarts,  as  a  family,  were  disinclined  to  believe  that  the  way 
to  inherit  the  earth  was  by  meekness,  and  none  of  them  be- 
lieved it  so  little. as  the  first  Charles. 

The  second  conviction  he  entertained  was  that  he  must 
have  revenues,  and  that  they  should  be  large  and  promptly 


132  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

paid.  His  whole  pathetic  career — tragic  seems  too  strong  a 
word  for  it,  though  it  ended  in  death — was  a  mingled  story 
of  nobility,  falsehood,  gallantry  and  treachery,  conditioned 
by  his  blind  pursuit  of  these  two  objects,  money  and  power. 

Upon  general  principles,  then,  it  was  to  be  expected  that 
Charles  would  be  the  enemy  of  Virginian  liberties.  But  it 
happened  that  money  was  his  more  pressing  need  at  the 
time  his  attention  first  was  turned  on  the  colony;  he  saw 
that  revenues  were  to  be  gained  from  them;  he  knew  that 
the  charter  recently  given  to  them  had  immensely  increased 
then*  productiveness;  and  as  to  his  prerogative,  he  had  not 
as  yet  felt  the  resistance  which  his  parliament  had  in  store 
for  him,  and  was  therefore  not  jealous  of  the  political  privi- 
leges of  a  remote  settlement — one,  too,  which  seemed  to  be 
in  the  hands  of  loyal  gentlemen.  "Their  liberties  harm  me 
not,"  was  his  thought,  "and  they  appear  to  be  favorable 
to  the  success  of  the  tobacco  crop;  the  tobacco  monopoly 
can  put  money  in  my  purse;  therefore  let  the  liberties  re- 
main. Should  these  planters  ever  presume  to  go  too  far,  it 
will  always  be  in  my  power  to  stop  them."  Thus  it  came 
about  that  tobacco,  after  procuring  the  Virginians  loving 
wives,  was  also  the  means  of  securing  the  favor  of  their 
king.  But  they,  naturally,  ascribed  the  sunshine  of  his 
smile  to  some  innate  merit  in  themselves,  and  their  grati- 
tude made  them  his  enthusiastic  supporters  as  long  as  he 
lived.  They  mourned  his  death,  and  opened  their  arms  to 
all  royalist  refugees  from  the  power  of  Cromwell.  "When 
Cromwell  sent  over  a  man-of-war,  however,  they  accepted 
the  situation.  Virginia  had  by  that  time  grown  to  so  con- 
siderable an  importance  that  they  could  adopt  a  somewhat 
conservative  attitude  toward  the  affairs  even  of  the  mother 
country. 

The  ten  years  following  Charles's  accession  were  a  period 
of  peace  and  growth  in  the  colony;  of  great  increase  in  popu- 
lation and  in  production,  and  of  a  steady  ripening  of  political 
liberties.  But  the  conditions  under  which  this  development 


LIBERTY,  SLAVERY,  AND   TYRANNY  133 

went  on  were  different  from  those  which  existed  in  Kew 
England  and  in  New  York.  The  Puritans  were  actuated 
by  religious  ideals,  the  Dutch  by  commercial  projects  chiefly; 
but  the  Virginia  planters  were  neither  religious  enthusiasts 
nor  tradesmen.  Their  tendency  was  not  to  huddle  together 
in  towns  and  close  communities,  but  to  spread  out  over  the 
broad  and  fertile  miles  of  their  new  country,  and  live  each 
in  a  little  principality  of  his  own,  with  his  slaves  and  de- 
pendents around  him.  They  modeled  their  lives  upon  those 
of  the  landed  gentry  in  England;  and  when  their  crops  were 
gathered,  they  did  not  go  down  to  the  wharfs  and  haggle 
over  their  disposal,  but  handed  them  over  to  agents,  who 
took  all  trouble  off  their  hands,  and  after  deducting  com- 
missions and  charges  made  over  to  them  the  net  profits. 
This  left  the  planters  leisure  to  apply  themselves  to  liberal 
pursuits ;  they  maintained  a  dignified  and  generous  hospital- 
ity, and  studied  the  art  of  government.  A  race  of  gallant 
gentlemen  grew  up,  well  educated,  and  consciously  superior 
to  the  rest  of  the  population,  who  had  very  limited  educa- 
tional facilities,  and  but  little  of  that  spirit  of  equality  and 
independence  which  characterized  the  northern  colonies. 
Towns  and  cities  came  slowly;  the  plantation  system  was 
more  natural  and  agreeable  under  the  circumstances.  Or- 
thodoxy in  religion  was  the  rule ;  and  though  at  first  there 
was  a  tendency  to  eschew  narrowness  and  bigotry,  yet  grad- 
ually the  church  became  hostile  to  dissenters,  and  Puritans 
and  Quakers  were  as  unwelcome  in  Virginia  as  were  the 
latter  in  Massachusetts,  or  Episcopalians  anywhere  in  New 
England.  All  this  seems  incompatible  with  democracy;  and 
probably  it  might  in  time  have  grown  into  a  liberal  monarch- 
ical system.  The  slaves  were  not  regarded  as  having  any 
rights,  political  or  personal;  their  masters  exercised  over 
them  the  power  of  life  and  death,  as  well  as  all  lesser  pow- 
ers. The  bulk  of  the  white  population  was  not  oppressed, 
and  was  able  to  get  a  living,  for  Virginia  was  "the  best 
poor  man's  country  in  the  world";  there  was  little  or  none 


134  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

of  the  discontent  that  embarrassed  the  New  Amsterdam  pa- 
troons ;  the  charter  gave  them  representation,  and  their  man- 
hood was  not  undermined.  Had  Virginia  been  an  island,  or 
otherwise  isolated,  and  free  from  any  external  interference, 
we  can  imagine  that  the  planters  might  at  last  have  found 
it  expedient  to  choose  a  king  from  among  their  number,  who 
would  have  found  a  nobility  and  a  proletariat  ready  made. 
But  Virginia  was  not  isolated.  She  was  loyal  to  the 
Stuarts,  because  they  did  not  bring  to  bear  upon  her  the 
severities  which  they  inflicted  upon  their  English  subjects ; 
but  when  she  became  a  royal  colony,  and  had  to  put  up 
with  corrupt  and  despotic  favorites  of  the  monarch,  who 
could  do  what  they  pleased,  and  were  responsible  to  nobody 
but  the  monarch  who  had  made  them  governor,  loyalty  be- 
gan to  cool.  Moreover,  men  whose  ability  and  advanced 
opinions  made  them  distasteful  to  the  English  kings,  fled 
to  the  colonies,  and  to  Virginia  among  the  rest,  and  sowed 
the  seeds  of  revolt.  Calamity  makes  strange  bedfellows: 
the  planters  liked  outside  oppression  as  little  as  did  the 
common  people,  and  could  not  but  make  common  cause 
with  them.  The  distance  between  the  two  was  diminished. 
Social  equality  there  could  hardly  be ;  but  political  and  theo- 
retic equality  could  be  acknowledged.  The  English  mon- 
archy made  the  American  republic ;  spurred  its  indolence, 
and  united  its  parts.  Man  left  to  himself  is  lax  and  in- 
different ;  from  first  to  last  it  is  the  pressure  of  wrong  that 
molds  him  into  the  form  of  right.  George  I.  gave  the  vic- 
tory to  the  Americans  in  the  Revolution  as  much  as  "Wash- 
ington did.  And  before  George's  time,  the  colonies  had 
been  keyed  up  to  the  struggle  by  years  of  injustice  and 
outrage.  And  this  injustice  and  outrage  seemed  the  more 
intolerable  because  they  had  been  preceded  by  a  period  of 
comparative  liberality.  It  needs  powerful  pressure  to  trans- 
form English  gentlemen  with  loyalist  traditions  and  sym- 
pathies into  a  democracy;  but  it  can  be  done,  and  the 
English  kings  were  the  men  to  do  it. 


LIBERTY,  SLAVERY,  AND   TYRANNY  135 

Until  the  period  of  unequivocal  tyranny  arrived,  the 
chief  shadow  upon  the  colony  was  cast  by  its  relations 
with  the  Indians.  Powhatan,  the  father  of  Pocahontas, 
and  chief  over  tribes  whose  domains  extended  over  thou- 
sands of  square  miles,  kept  friendship  with  the  whites  till 
his  death  in  1618.  His  brother,  Opechankano,  professed  to 
inherit  the  friendship  along  with  the  chieftainship ;  but  the 
relations  between  the  red  men  and  the  colonists  had  never 
been  too  cordial,  and  the  latter,  measuring  their  muskets 
and  breastplates  against  the  stone  arrows  and  deerskin 
shirts  of  the  savages,  fell  into  the  error  of  despising  them. 
The  Indians,  for  their  part,  stood  in  some  awe  of  firearms, 
which  they  had  never  held  hi  their  own  hands,  and  the 
penalty  for  selling  which  to  them  had  been  made  capital 
years  before.  But  they  had  their  own  methods  of  dealing 
with  foes;  and  since  neither  side  had  ever  formally  come 
to  blows,  they  had  received  no  object  lesson  to  warn  them 
to  keep  hands  off.  Opechankano  was  intelligent  and  far- 
seeing;  he  perceived  that  the  whites  were  increasing  in 
numbers,  and  that  if  they  were  not  checked  betimes,  they 
would  finally  overrun  the  country.  But  he  did  not  see  so 
far  as  his  brother,  who  had  known  that  the  final  domina- 
tion of  the  English  could  not  be  prevented,  and  had  there- 
fore adopted  the  policy  of  conciliating  them  as  the  best. 
Opechankano,  therefore,  quietly  planned  the  extermination 
of  the  settlers ;  the  familiar  terms  on  which  the  white  and 
red  men  stood  played  into  his  hands.  Indians  were  in  the 
habit  of  visiting  the  white  settlements,  and  mingling  with 
the  people.  Orders  for  concerted  action  were  secretly  cir- 
culated among  the  savages,  who  were  to  hold  themselves 
ready  for  the  signal. 

It  might  after  all  never  have  been  given,  but  for  an 
unlocked  for  incident.  A  noisy  and  troublesome  Indian, 
who  imagined  that  bullets  could  not  kill  him,  tell  into  a 
quarrel  with  a  settler,  and  slew  him ;  and  was  himself  shot 
while  attempting  to  escape  from  arrest.  "Sooner  shall  the 


136  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES 

heavens  fall,"  devoutly  exclaimed  Opechankano,  when  in- 
formed of  this  mishap,  "than  I  will  break  the  peace  of 
Powhatan."  But  the  waiting  tribes  knew  that  the  time 
had  come. 

On  the  morning  of  March  22,  1622,  the  settlers  arose  as 
usual  to  the  labors  of  the  day ;  some  of  them  took  their  hoes 
and  spades  and  went  out  into  the  fields ;  others  busied  them- 
selves about  their  houses.  Numbers  of  Indians  were  about, 
but  this  excited  no  remark  or  suspicion ;  they  were  not  for- 
midable ;  a  dog  could  frighten  them ;  a  child  could  hold  them 
in  check.  Indians  strolled  into  the  cabins,  and  sat  at  the 
breakfast-tables.  No  one  gave  them  a  second  thought.  No 
one  looked  over  his  shoulder  when  an  Indian  passed  behind 
him. 

But,  miles  up  the  country  from  Jamestown  lived  a  set- 
tler who  kept  an  Indian  boy,  whom  he  instructed,  and  who 
made  himself  useful  about  the  place ;  and  of  all  the  Indians 
in  Virginia  that  day  he  was  the  only  one  whose  heart  re- 
lented. His  brother  had  lain  with  him  the  night  before, 
and  had  given  him  the  word :  he  was  to  kill  the  settler  and 
his  family  the  next  morning.  The  boy  seemed  to  assent, 
and  the  other  went  on  his  way.  The  boy  lay  till  dawn, 
his  savage  mind  divided  between  fear  of  the  great  chief 
and  compassion  for  the  white  man  who  had  been  kind  to 
him  and  taught  him.  In  the  early  morning  he  arose  and 
stood  beside  his  benefactor's  bed.  The  man  slept :  one  blow, 
and  he  would  be  dead.  But  the  boy  did  not  strike;  he 
wakened  him  and  told  him  of  the  horror  that  was  about 
to  befall. 

Pace — such  was  the  settler's  name — did  not  wait  for  con- 
firmation of  the  tale;  indeed,  as  he  ran  to  the  paddock  to 
get  his  packhorse,  he  could  see  the  smoke  of  burning  cabins 
rising  in  the  still  air,  and  could  hear,  far  off,  the  yells  of 
the  savages  as  they  plied  their  work. 

He  sprang  on  the  horse's  back,  with  his  musket  across 
the  withers,  and  set  off  at  a  gallop  toward  Jamestown, 


LIBERTY,  SLAVERY,  AND   TYRANNY  137 

Most  of  the  colonists  lived  in  that  neighborhood;  if  he 
could  get  there  in  time  many  lives  might  be  saved.  As 
he  rode,  he  directed  his  course  to  the  cabins,  on  the  right 
hand  and  on  the  left,  that  lay  in  his  way,  and  gave  the 
alarm.  Many  of  the  savages,  who  had  not  yet  begun  their 
work,  at  once  took  to  flight ;  they  would  not  face  white  men 
when  on  their  guard.  In  other  places,  the  warning  came 
too  late.  The  missionary,  who  had  devoted  his  life  to  teach- 
ing the  heathen  that  men  should  love  one  another,  was  in- 
humanly butchered.  Pace  arrived  in  season  to  avert  the 
danger  from  the  bulk  of  the  little  population;  but,  of  the 
four  thousand  scattered  over  the  country-side,  three  hun- 
dred and  forty-seven  died  that  morning,  with  the  circum- 
stances of  hideous  atrocity  which  were  the  invariable  accom- 
paniments of  Indian  massacre.  The  colonists  were  appalled; 
and  for  a  time  it  seemed  as  if  the  purpose  of  Opechankano 
would  be  realized.  Two  thousand  settlers  came  in  from  the 
outlying  districts,  panic-stricken,  and  after  living  for  a  while 
crowded  together  in  unwholesome  quarters  in  the  vicinity  of 
Jamestown,  took  ship  and  returned  to  England.  Hardly 
one  in  ten  of  the  plantations  was  not  deserted.  The  bolder 
spirits,  who  remained,  organized  a  war  of  extermination,  in 
which  they  were  supported  and  re-enforced  by  the  company, 
who  sent  over  men  and  weapons  as  soon  as  the  news  wag 
known  in  England.  But  the  campaign  resolved  itself  into 
long  and  harassing  attacks,  ambuscades  and  reprisals,  ex- 
tending over  many  years.  There  could  be  no  pitched  bat- 
tles with  Indians ;  they  gave  way,  but  only  to  circumvent 
and  surprise.  The  whites  were  resolved  to  make  no  peace, 
and  to  give  no  quarter  to  man,  woman  or  child.  The  for- 
merly peaceful  settlement  became  inured  to  blood  and  cruelty. 
But  the  red  men  could  not  be  wholly  driven  away.  Just 
twenty  years  after  the  first  massacre  the  same  implacable 
chief,  now  a  decrepit  old  man,  planned  a  second  one ;  some 
hundreds  were  murdered ;  but  the  colonists  were  readier  and 
stronger  now,  and  they  gathered  themselves  up  at  once. 


I38  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

and  inflicted  a  crushing  vengeance.  The  ancient  chief  was 
finally  taken,  and  either  died  of  wounds  received  in  fight, 
or  was  slain  by  a  soldier  after  capture.  After  1646,  the 
borders  of  Virginia  were  safe.  There  is  no  redeeming  feat- 
ure in  this  Indian  warfare,  which  fitfully  survives,  in  remote 
parts  of  our  country,  even  now.  It  aided,  perhaps,  to  train 
the  race  of  pioneers  and  frontiersmen  who  later  became  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  features  of  our  early  population. 
Contact  with  the  savage  races  inoculated  us,  perhaps,  with 
a  touch  of  their  stoicism  and  grimness.  But  in  our  conflicts 
with  them  there  was  nothing  noble  or  inspiring ;  and  there 
could  be  no  object  in  view  on  either  side  but  extermina- 
tion. Our  Indian  fighters  became  as  savage  and  merciless 
as  the  creatures  they  pursued.  The  Indian  must  be  fought 
by  the  same  tactics  he  adopts — cunning,  stealth,  surprise, 
and  then  unrelenting  slaughter,  with  the  sequel  of  the  scalp- 
ing knife.  They  compel  us  to  descend  to  their  level  in  war, 
and  we  have  utterly  failed  to  raise  them  to  our  own  in  peace. 
Some  of  them  have  possessed  certain  harshly  masculine  traits 
whicn  we  can  admire ;  some  of  them  have  showed  broad  and 
virile  intelligence,  the  qualities  of  a  general,  a  diplomatist, 
or  even  of  a  statesman.  There  have  been,  and  are,  so-called 
tame  Indians ;  but  such  were  not  worth  taming.  As  a  whole, 
the  red  tribes  have  resisted  all  attempts  to  lift  them  to  the 
civilized  level  and  keep  them  there.  Roger  Williams,  and 
the  "apostle,"  John  Eliot,  were  their  friends,  and  won  their 
regard;  but  neither  Williams'  influence  nor  Eliot's  Bible  left 
any  lasting  trace  upon  them.  The  Indian  is  irreclaimable ; 
disappointment  is  the  very  mildest  result  that  awaits  the 
effort  to  reclaim  him.  He  is  wild  to  the  marrow ;  no  bird 
or  beast  is  so  wild  as  he.  He  is  a  human  embodiment  of 
the  untrodden  woods,  the  undiscovered  rivers,  the  austere 
mountains,  the  pathless  prairies — of  all  those  parts  and  as- 
pects of  nature  which  are  never  brought  within  the  smooth 
sway  of  civilization,  because,  as  soon  as  civilization  appears, 
they  are,  so  far  as  their  essential  quality  is  concerned,  gona. 


LIBERTY,  SLAVERY,  AND   TYRANNY  139 

To  hear  the  yelp  of  the  coyote,  you  must  lie  alone  in  the 
sage  brush  near  the  pool  in  the  hollow  of  the  low  hills  by 
moonlight;  it  will  never  reach  your  ears  through  the  bars 
of  the  menagerie  cage.  To  know  the  mountain,  you  must 
confront  the  avalanche  and  the  precipice  uncompanioned, 
and  stand  at  last  on  the  breathless  and  awful  peak,  which 
lifts  itself  and  you  into  a  voiceless  solitude  remote  from 
man  and  yet  no  nearer  to  God ;  but  if  you  journey  with 
guides  and  jolly  fellowship  to  some  Mountain  House,  never 
so  airily  perched,  you  would  as  well  visit  a  panorama.  To 
comprehend  the  ocean,  you  must  meet  it  in  its  own  inviolable 
domain,  where  it  tosses  heavenward  its  careless  nakedness, 
and  laughs  with  death ;  from  the  deck  of  a  steamboat  you 
will  never  find  it,  though  you  sail  as  far  as  the  Flying 
Dutchman.  But  the  solitude  which  nature  reveals,  and 
which  alone  reveals  her,  does  but  prepare  you  for  the  in- 
approachableness  that  shines  out  at  you  from  the  Indian's 
eyes.  Seas  are  shallow  and  continents  but  a  span  com- 
pared with  the  breadths  and  depths  which  separate  him 
from  you.  The  sphinx  will  yield  her  mystery,  but  he  will 
not  unveil  his ;  you  may  touch  the  poles  of  the  planet,  but 
you  can  never  lay  your  hand  on  him.  The  same  God  that 
made  you,  made  him  also  in  His  image ;  but  if  you  try  to 
bridge  the  gulf  between  you,  you  will  learn  something  of 
God's  infinitude. 

Sir  George  Yeardley  and  Sir  Francis  "Wyatt  both  held 
the  office  of  governor  twice,  and  with  good  repute;  in  1630, 
Sir  John  Harvey  succeeded  the  former.  He  was  the  cham- 
pion of  monopolists ;  he  would  divide  the  land  among  a  few, 
and  keep  the  rest  in  subjection.  He  fought  with  the  legis- 
lature from  the  first ;  he  could  not  wring  their  rights  from 
them,  but  he  distressed  and  irritated  the  colony,  levying 
arbitrary  fines,  and  browbeating  all  and  sundry  with  the 
brutality  of  an  ungoverned  temper.  His  chief  patron  was 
Lord  Baltimore,  a  Roman  Catholic,  and  therefore  disfavored 
by  the  Protestant  colony,  who  would  not  suffer  him  to 


140  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

plant  in  their  domain.  He  bought  a  patent  authorizing 
him  to  establish  a  colony  in  the  northern  part  of  Virginia, 
which  was  afterward  called  Maryland,  being  cut  off  from 
the  older  colony;  and  this  diminution  of  their  territory 
much  displeased  the  Virginians.  But  Harvey  supported 
him  throughout;  and  permitted  mass  to  be  said  in  Vir- 
ginia. He  likewise  prevented  the  settlers  from  carrying 
on  the  border  warfare  with  the  Indians,  lest  it  should  dis- 
turb his  perquisites  from  the  fur  trade.  Violent  scenes  took 
place  in  the  hall  of  assembly,  and  hard  words  were  given 
and  exchanged ;  the  planters  were  men  of  hot  passions,  and 
the  conduct  of  the  governor  became  intolerable  to  them. 
Matters  came  to  a  head  during  the  last  week  in  April  of 
1635.  An  unauthorized  gathering  in  York  complained  of 
an  unjust  tax  and  of  other  malfeasances;  whereupon  Har- 
vey cried  mutiny,  and  had  the  leaders  arrested.  But  the 
boot  was  on  the  other  leg.  Several  members  of  council, 
with  a  company  of  musketeers  at  their  back,  came  to  his 
house;  Matthews,  with  whom  the  governor  had  lately  had 
a  fierce  quarrel,  and  the  other  planters,  tramped  into  the 
broad  hall  of  the  dwelling,  with  swords  in  their  hands 
and  threatening  looks,  and  confronted  him.  John  Utie 
brought  down  his  hand  with  staggering  force  on  his  shoul- 
der, exclaiming,  "I  arrest  you  for  treason!"  "How,  for 
treason?"  queried  the  frightened  governor.  "You  have  be- 
trayed our  forts  to  our  enemies  of  Maryland,"  replied  sev- 
eral stern  voices.  Harvey  glanced  from  one  to  another ;  in 
the  background  were  the  musketeers;  plainly  this  was  no 
time  for  trifling.  He  offered  to  do  whatever  they  demanded. 
They  required  the  release  of  prisoners,  which  was  immedi- 
ately done,  and  bade  him  prepare  to  answer  before  the  as- 
sembly. They  would  listen  to  no  arguments  and  no  excuses; 
he  was  told  by  Matthews,  with  a  menacing  look,  that  the 
people  would  have  none  of  him.  "You  intend  no  less  than 
the  subversion  of  Maryland,"  protested  Harvey;  but  he 
promised  to  return  to  England,  and  John  West,  who  had 


LIBERTY,  SLAVERY,  AND   TYRANNY  141 

already  acted  as  ad-interim  governor  while  Harvey  was  on 
his  way  to  Virginia,  was  at  once  elected  in  his  place. 

This  incident  showed  of  what  stuff  the  Virginians  were 
made.  It  was  an  early  breaking-out  of  the  American  spirit, 
which  would  never  brook  tyranny.  In  offering  violence  to 
the  king's  governor  they  imperiled  their  own  lives ;  but  their 
blood  was  up,  and  they  heeded  no  danger.  When  Harvey 
presented  himself  before  Charles  at  the  privy  council,  his 
majesty  remarked  that  he  must  be  sent  back  at  all  hazards, 
because  the  sending  him  to  England  had  been  an  assump- 
tion on  the  colonists'  part  of  regal  power;  and,  tobacco  or 
no  tobacco,  the  line  must  be  drawn  there.  If  the  charges 
against  him  were  sustained,  he  might  stay  but  a  day ;  if  not, 
his  term  should  be  extended  beyond  the  original  commis- 
sion. A  new  commission  was  given  him,  and  back  he  went ; 
but  this  shuttlecock  experience  seems  to  have  quelled  his 
spirit,  and  we  hear  no  more  of  quarrels  with  the  Virginia 
council.  Wyatt  relieved  him  in  1639;  and  in  1642  came 
Sir  William  Berkeley.  This  man,  who  was  born  about  the 
beginning  of  the  century,  was  twice  governor;  his  present 
term,  lasting  ten  years,  was  followed  by  a  nine  years'  in- 
terval; reappointed  again  in  1660,  he  was  in  power  when 
the  rebellion  broke  out  which  was  led  by  Nathaniel  Bacon. 
Little  is  known  of  him  outside  of  his  American  record ;  in 
his  first  term,  under  Charles  I.,  he  acted  simply  as  the 
creature  of  that  monarch,  and  aroused  no  special  animosi- 
ties on  his  own  account :  during  the  reign  of  Cromwell,  he 
disappeared;  but  when  Charles  II.  ascended  the  throne, 
Berkeley,  though  then  an  old  man,  was  thought  to  be  fitted 
by  his  previous  experience  for  the  Virginia  post,  and  was 
returned  thither.  But  years  seemed  to  have  soured  his  dis- 
position, and  lessened  his  prudence,  and,  as  we  shall  see, 
his  bloodthirsty  conduct  after  Bacon's  death  was  the  occa- 
sion of  his  recall  in  disgrace ;  and  he  died,  like  Andros  more 
than  half  a  century  later,  with  the  curse  of  a  people  on  his 
grave. 


142  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

But  his  first  appearance  was  auspicious;  he  brought  in- 
structions designed  to  increase  the  reign  of  law  and  order 
in  the  colony,  without  infringing  upon  its  existing  liberties. 
Allegiance  to  God  and  the  king  were  enjoined,  additional 
courts  were  provided  for,  traffic  with  the  Indians  was  regu- 
lated, annual  assemblies,  with  a  negative  voice  upon  their 
acts  by  the  governor,  were  commanded.  The  only  discord- 
ant note  in  the  instructions  referred  to  the  conditions  of 
maritime  trade,  afterward  known  in  history  as  the  Naviga- 
tion Acts.  The  colony  desired  free  trade,  which,  as  it  had 
no  manufactures,  was  obviously  to  its  benefit.  But  it  was 
as  obviously  to  the  interest  of  the  king  that  he  alone  should 
enjoy  the  right  of  controlling  all  imports  into  the  colony, 
and  absorbing  all  its  exports;  and  his  rulings  were  framed 
to  secure  that  end.  But  for  the  present  the  Acts  were  not 
carried  into  effect;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  prospect  was 
held  out  that  there  should  be  no  taxation  except  what  was 
voted  by  the  people  themselves;  and  then*  contention  that 
they,  who  knew  the  conditions  and  needs  of  their  colonial 
existence,  were  better  able  to  regulate  it  than  those  at  home, 
was  allowed.  By  way  of  evincing  their  recognition  of  this 
courtesy,  the  assembly  passed  among  other  laws,  one  against 
toleration  of  any  other  than  the  episcopalian  form  of  wor- 
ship; and  when  Charles  was  beheaded,  in  1649,  it  voted  to 
retain  Berkeley  in  office.  But  when,  in  the  next  year,  the 
fugitive  son  of  the  dead  king  undertook  to  issue  a  commis- 
sion confirming  him  in  his  place,  Parliament  intervened. 
Virginia  was  brought  to  her  bearings ;  and  the  Navigation 
Acts  were  brought  up  again.  Cromwell,  no  less  than 
Charles,  appreciated  the  advantages  of  a  monopoly. 

Restrictions  on  commerce,  first  imposed  by  Spain,  were 
first  resisted  by  the  Dutch,  with  the  result  of  rendering  them 
the  leading  maritime  power.  Cromwell  wished  to  appro- 
priate or  share  this  advantage;  but  instead  of  adopting  the 
means  employed  for  that  purpose  by  the  Dutch,  he  decreed 
that  none  but  English  ships  should  trade  with  the  English 


LIBERTY,  SLAVERY,  AND   TYRANNY  143 

colonies,  and  that  foreign  ships  should  bring  to  England  only 
the  products  of  their  own  countries.  The  restriction  did  little 
harm  to  Virginia,  so  long  as  England  was  able  to  take  all 
her  products,  and  to  supply  all  her  needs ;  but  it  brought  on 
war  with  Holland,  in  which  both  the  moral  and  the  naval 
advantage  was  on  the  side  of  the  Dutch.  But  England 
acquired  a  foothold  in  the  West  Indies,  and  her  policy  was 
maintained.  Virginia  asked  that  she  should  have  repre- 
sentatives to  act  for  her  in  England,  and  when  a  body  of 
commissioners  was  appointed  to  examine  colonial  questions, 
among  them  were  Richard  Bennett  and  William  Clairborne, 
both  of  them  colonists,  and  men  of  force  and  ability.  In  the 
sequel,  the  liberties  of  the  colony  were  enlarged,  and  Bennett 
was  made  governor  by  vote  of  the  assembly  itself,  which 
continued  to  elect  governors  during  the  ascendency  of  Par- 
liament in  England.  When  Richard  Cromwell,  who  had 
succeeded  the  great  Protector,  resigned  his  office,  the  Vir- 
ginia burgesses  chose  Sir  William  Berkeley  to  rule  over 
them,  and  he  acknowledged  their  authority.  Meanwhile 
the  Navigation  Acts  were  so  little  enforced  that  smuggling 
was  hardly  illegal;  and,  in  1658,  the  colonists  actually  in- 
vited foreign  nations  to  deal  with  them.  This  was  the 
period  of  Virginia's  greatest  freedom  before  the  Revolu- 
tion. The  suffrage  was  in  the  hands  of  all  taxpayers;  in 
religious  matters,  all  restrictions  except  those  against  the 
Quakers  were  removed;  loyalists  and  roundheads  mingled 
amicably  in  planting  and  legislation,  and  the  differences 
which  had  arrayed  them  against  one  another  in  England 
were  forgotten.  The  population  increased  to  thirty  thou- 
sand, and  the  inhabitants  developed  among  themselves  an 
ardent  patriotism.  It  is  not  surprising.  Their  country 
was  one  of  the  richest  and  loveliest  in  the  world;  every- 
thing which  Impairs  the  enjoyment  of  life  was  eliminated 
or  minimized ;  hucksters,  pettifoggers  and  bigots  were  scarce 
as  June  snowflakes ;  indentured  servants,  on  their  emancipa- 
tion, were  speedily  given  the  suffrage :  it  might  almost  be 


144  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

said  that  a  man  might  do  whatever  he  pleased,  within  the 
limits  of  criminal  law.  Assuredly,  personal  liberty  was  far 
greater  at  this  epoch,  in  Virginia,  than  it  is  to-day  in  New 
York  City  or  Chicago.  The  instinct  of  the  Virginians,  in 
matters  of  governing,  was  so  far  as  possible  to  let  them- 
selves alone;  the  planters,  in  the  seclusion  of  their  estates, 
were  practically  subject  to  no  law  but  their  own  pleasure. 
There  was  probably  no  place  in  the  civilized  world  where  so 
much  intelligent  happiness  was  to  be  had  as  in  Virginia 
during  the  years  immediately  preceding  the  Restoration. 

What  would  have  been  the  political  result  had  the  ab- 
sence of  all  artificial  pressure  indefinitely  continued?  Two 
tendencies  were  observable,  working,  apparently,  in  oppo- 
site directions.  On  one  side  were  the  planters,  many  of 
them  aristocratic  by  origin  as  well  as  by  circumstance; 
who  lived  in  affluence,  were  friendly  to  the  established 
church,  enjoyed  a  liberal  education,  and  naturally  assumed 
the  reins  of  power.  The  law  which  gave  fifty  acres  of  land 
to  the  settler  who  imported  an  emigrant,  while  it  made  for 
the  enlargement  of  estates,  created  also  a  large  number  of 
tenants  and  dependents,  who  would  be  likely  to  support  their 
patrons  and  proprietors,  who  exercised  so  much  control  over 
their  welfare.  These  dependents  found  the  conditions  of 
existence  comfortable,  and  even  after  they  had  become 
their  own  masters,  they  would  be  likely  to  consult  the 
wishes  of  the  men  who  had  been  the  occasion  of  their  good 
fortune.  Neither  education  nor  religious  instruction  were  so 
readily  obtainable  as  to  threaten  to  render  such  a  class  dis- 
contented with  their  condition  by  opening  to  them  hitherto 
unknown  gates  of  advantage;  and  the  suffrage,  when  by 
ownership  of  private  property  they  had  qualified  themselves 
to  exercise  it,  would  at  once  appease  their  independent  in- 
stincts, and  at  the  same  time  make  them  willing,  in  using 
it,  to  follow  the  lead  or  suggestion  of  men  so  superior  to 
them  in  intelligence  and  in  political  sagacity.  From  this 
standpoint,  then,  it  seemed  probable  that  a  self-governing 


LIBERTY,  SLAVERY,  AND   TYRANNY  145 

community  of  the  special  kind  existing  in  Virginia  would 
drift  toward  an  aristocratic  form  of  rule. 

But  the  matter  could  be  regarded  in  another  way.  Free 
suffrage  is  a  power  having  a  principle  of  life  within  itself;  it 
creates  in  the  mind  that  which  did  not  before  exist,  and  edu- 
cates its  possessor  first  by  prompting  him  to  ask  himself  of 
what  improvement  his  condition  is  susceptible,  and  then  by 
forcing  him  to  review  his  desire  by  the  light  of  its  realiza- 
tion— by  practical  experience  of  its  effects,  in  other  words : 
a  method  whose  teachings  are  more  thorough  and  convinc- 
ing than  any  school  or  college  is  able  to  supply.  The  use  of 
the  ballot,  in  short,  as  a  means  of  instruction  in  the  prob- 
lems of  government,  takes  the  place  of  anything  else;  it 
will  of  itself  build  up  a  people  both  capable  of  conducting 
their  own  affairs,  and  resolved  to  do  so.  The  plebeians  of 
Virginia,  therefore,  who  began  by  being  poor  and  ignorant 
emigrants,  or  indentured  servants,  to  whom  the  planters 
accorded  such  privileges  because  it  had  never  occurred  to 
them  that  a  plebeian  can  ever  become  anything  else — these 
men,  unconsciously  to  themselves,  perhaps,  were  on  the 
road  which  leads  to  democracy.  The  time  would  come 
when  they  would  cease  to  follow  the  lead  of  the  planters; 
when  their  interests  and  the  planters'  would  clash.  In 
that  collision,  their  numbers  would  give  them  the  victory. 
With  a  similar  community  planted  in  the  old  world,  such 
might  not  be  the  issue;  the  strong  influence  of  tradition 
would  combat  it,  and  the  surrounding  pressure  of  settled 
countries,  which  offered  no  escape  or  asylum  for  the  man 
of  radical  ideas.  But  the  boundaries  of  Virginia  were  the 
untrammeled  wilderness ;  any  man  who  could  not  have  his 
will  in  the  colony  had  this  limitless  expanse  at  his  dis- 
posal ;  there  could  be  no  finality  for  him  in  the  decrees  of 
assemblies,  if  he  possessed  the  courage  of  his  convictions 
in  sufficient  measure  to  make  him  match  himself  against 
the  red  man,  and  be  independent  not  only  of  any  special 
form  of  society,  but  of  society  itself.  The  consciousness 
U.S.— 7  VOL.  I. 


146  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

of  this  would  hearten  him  to  entertain  free  thoughts,  and 
to  strive  for  their  embodiment.  It  was  partly  this,  no 
doubt,  which,  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,  drove  hundreds 
of  Ishmaels  into  the  interior,  where  they  became  the  Daniel 
Boones  and  the  Davy  Crocketts  of  legend  and  romance.  So, 
although  Virginia  was  as  little  likely  as  any  of  the  colonies 
to  breed  a  democracy,  yet  even  there  it  was  a  more  than 
possible  outcome  of  the  situation,  even  with  no  outside 
stimulus.  But  the  old  world,  because  it  desired  the  op- 
pression of  America,  was  to  become  the  immediate  agent 
of  its  emancipation. 

There  was  rejoicing  in  Virginia  when  Charles  II.  ac- 
ceded to  power;  on  the  part  of  the  planters,  because  they 
saw  opportunity  for  political  distinction ;  on  the  part  of  the 
plebeians,  as  the  expression  of  a  loyalty  to  kingship  which 
centuries  had  made  instinctive  in  them.  Berkeley,  putting 
himself  in  line  with  the  predominant  feeling,  summoned  the 
assembly  in  the  name  of  the  king,  thus  announcing  without 
rebuke  the  termination  of  the  era  of  self-government.  The 
members  who  were  elected  were  mostly  royalists.  They  met 
in  1661.  It  was  found  that  the  Navigation  Acts,  which  had 
been  a  dead  letter  ever  since  their  passage,  were  to  be  revived 
in  full  force;  and  the  increase  of  the  colony  in  the  mean- 
while made  them  more  than  ever  unwelcome.  The  exports 
were  much  larger  than  before,  and  unless  the  colony  could 
have  a  free  market  for  them  the  profits  must  be  materially 
lessened.  And  again,  since  England  was  the  only  country 
from  which  the  Virginian  could  purchase  supplies,  her  mer- 
chants could  charge  him  what  they  pleased.  This  was  galling 
alike  to  royalists  and  roundheads  in  Virginia,  and  quickly 
healed  the  breach,  such  as  it  was,  between  the  parties. 
Charles's  true  policy  would  have  been  to  widen  the  gulf  be- 
tween them ;  instead  of  that,  he  forced  them  into  each  other's 
arms.  It  was  determined  to  send  Berkeley  to  England  to 
ask  relief;  he  accepted  the  commission,  but  his  sympathies 
were  not  with  the  colonists,  and  he  obtained  nothing.  Evi- 


LIBERTY,  SLAVERY,  AND   TYRANNY  147 

dently,  there  could  be  no  relief  but  in  independence,  and  it 
was  still  a  hundred  years  too  early  for  that.  The  exaspera- 
tion which  this  state  of  things  produced  in  the  great  land 
owners  did  more  for  the  cause  of  democracy  than  could 
decades  of  peaceful  evolution.  But  the  colonists  could  no 
longer  have  things  their  own  way.  Liberal  laws  were 
repealed,  and  intolerance  and  oppression  took  their  place. 
Heretics  were  persecuted ;  the  power  of  the  church  in  civil 
affairs  was  increased ;  and  fines  and  taxes  on  the  industry 
of  the  colony  were  wanton  and  excessive.  The  king  of  Eng- 
land directly  ruled  Virginia.  The  people  were  forced  to  pay 
Berkeley  a  thousand  pounds  sterling  as  his  salary,  and  he 
declared  he  ought  to  get  three  times  as  much  even  as  that. 
His  true  character  was  beginning  to  appear.  The  judges 
were  appointed  by  the  king,  and  the  license  thus  given  them 
resulted  in  a  petty  despotism;  when  an  official  wanted  money, 
he  caused  a  tax  to  be  levied  for  the  amount.  Appeals  were 
vain,  and  ere  long  were  prohibited.  The  assembly,  partisans 
of  the  king,  declared  themselves  permanent,  so  that  all  chance 
for  the  people  to  be  better  represented  was  gone,  and  as  the 
members  fixed  their  own  pay,  and  fixed  it  at  a  preposterous 
figure,  the  colony  began  to  groan  in  earnest.  But  worse  was 
to  come.  The  suffrage  was  restricted  to  freeholders  and 
householders,  and  at  a  stroke,  all  but  a  fraction  of  the 
colonists  were  deprived  of  any  voice  in  their  own  govern- 
ment. The  spread  of  education,  never  adequate,  was  stopped 
altogether.  "I  thank  God  there  are  no  free  schools  nor  print- 
ing," Sir  William  Berkeley  was  able  to  say,  "and  I  hope  we 
shall  not  have,  these  hundred  years ;  for  learning  has  brought 
disobedience  and  heresy  and  sects  into  the  world,  and  print- 
ing has  divulged  them,  and  libels  against  the  best  govern- 
ment. God  keep  us  from  both!"  This  was  a  succinct  and 
full  formulation  of  the  spirit  which  has  ever  tended  to 
make  the  earth  a  hell  for  its  inhabitants.  "The  min- 
isters," added  the  governor,  "should  pray  oftener,  and 
preach  less."  But  he  spake  in  all  solemnity;  there  wag 


I48  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

not  the  ghost  of  a  sense  of  humor  in  his  whole  insuffer- 
able carcass. 

The  downward  course  was  not  to  stop  here.  Charles, 
with  the  freehandedness  of  a  highwayman,  presented  two 
of  his  favorites,  in  1673,  for  a  term  of  one  and  thirty  years, 
with  the  entire  colony!  This  act  stirred  even  the  sodden- 
ness  of  the  legislature.  At  the  time  of  their  election,  a 
dozen  years  before,  they  had  been  royalists  indeed,  but  men 
of  honor,  intending  the  good  of  the  colony ;  and  had  tried, 
as  we  saw,  to  stop  the  enforcement  of  the  Navigation  Acts. 
But  when  they  discovered  that  they  could  continue  them- 
selves in  office  indefinitely,  with  such  salary  as  they  chose 
to  demand,  they  soon  became  indifferent  about  the  Naviga- 
tion Acts,  or  anything  else  which  respected  the  welfare  and 
happiness  of  their  fellows.  Let  the  common  folk  do  the 
work,  and  the  better  sort  enjoy  the  proceeds :  that  was  the 
true  and  only  respectable  arrangement.  We  may  say  that 
it  sounds  like  a  return  to  the  dark  ages ;  but  perhaps  if  we 
enter  into  our  closets  and  question  ourselves  closely,  we  shall 
find  that  precisely  the  same  principles  for  which  Berkeley 
and  his  assembly  stood  in  1673,  are  both  avowed  and  car- 
ried into  effect  in  this  same  country,  in  the  very  year  of 
grace  which  is  now  passing  over  us.  A  nation,  even  in 
America,  takes  a  great  deal  of  teaching. 

But  the  generosity  of  Charles  startled  the  assembly  out 
of  their  porcine  indifference,  for  it  threatened  to  bring  to 
bear  upon  them  the  same  practices  by  which  they  had  de- 
stroyed the  happiness  of  the  colony.  If  the  king  had  given 
over  to  these  two  men  all  sovereignty  in  Virginia,  what  was 
to  prevent  these  gentlemen  from  dissolving  the  assembly, 
who  had  become,  as  it  were,  incorporate  with  their  seats, 
and  had  hoped  to  die  in  them — and  ruling  the  country  and 
them  without  any  legislative  medium  whatever?  Accord- 
ingly, with  gruntings  of  dismay,  they  chose  three  agents  to 
sail  forthwith  to  England,  and  expostulate  with  the  merry 
monarch.  The  expostulation  was  couched  in  the  most  ser- 


CATHOLIC,  PHILOSOPHER,  AND  REBEL        149 

vile  terms,  as  of  men  who  love  to  be  kicked,  but  hope  to  live, 
if  only  to  be  kicked  again.  Might  the  colony,  they  concluded, 
be  permitted  to  buy  itself  out  of  the  hands  of  its  new  own- 
ers, at  their  own  price?  And  might  the  people  of  Virginia 
be  free  from  any  tax  not  approved  by  their  assembly?  That 
was  the  sum  of  their  petition. 

The  king  let  his  lawyers  talk  over  the  matter,  and,  when 
they  reported  favorably,  good-naturedly  said,  "So  let  it  be, 
then!"  and  permitted  a  charter  to  be  drawn  up.  But  before 
the  broad  seal  could  be  affixed  to  it  he  altered  his  mind,  for 
causes  satisfactory  to  him,  and  the  envoys  were  sent  home, 
poorer  than  they  came.  But  before  relating  what  awaited 
them  there,  wo  must  advert  briefly  to  the  doings  of  George 
Calvert,  Lord  Baltimore  in  the  Irish  peerage,  in  his  new 
country  of  Maryland. 


CHAPTER  SIXTH 

CATHOLIC,  PHILOSOPHER,   AND  REBEL 

i  HE  first  Lord  Baltimore,  whose  family  name 
was  Calvert,  was  a  Yorkshireman,  born  at 
the  town  of  Kipling  in  1580.  He  entered 
Parliament  in  his  thirtieth  year,  and  was 
James's  Secretary  of  State  ten  years  later. 
He  was  a  man  of  large,  tranquil  nature, 
philosophic,  charitable,  loving  peace;  but  these  qualities 
were  fused  by  a  concrete  tendency  of  thought,  which  made 
him  a  man  of  action,  and  determined  that  action  in  the 
direction  of  practical  schemes  of  benevolence.  The  contem- 
porary interest  in  America  as  a  possible  arena  of  enterprise 
and  Mecca  of  religious  and  political  dissenters,  attracted  his 
sympathetic  attention;  and  when,  in  1625,  being  then  five- 
and-forty  years  of  age,  he  found  in  the  Roman  Catholic 


150  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

communion  a  refuge  from  the  clamor  of  warring  sects,  and 
as  an  immediate  consequence  tendered  his  resignation  as 
secretary  to  the  head  of  the  Church  of  England,  he  found 
himself  with  leisure  to  put  his  designs  in  execution.  He 
had,  upon  his  conversion,  been  raised  to  the  rank  of  Baron 
Baltimore  in  the  peerage  of  Ireland ;  and  his  change  of  faith 
in  no  degree  forfeited  him  the  favor  of  the  king.  When 
therefore  he  asked  for  a  charter  to  found  a  colony  in  Ava- 
lon,  in  Newfoundland,  it  was  at  once  granted,  and  the 
colony  was  sent  out;  but  his  visits  to  it  in  1627  and  1629 
convinced  him  that  the  climate  was  too  inclement  for  his 
purposes,  and  he  requested  that  it  might  be  transferred  to 
the  northern  parts  of  Virginia,  which  he  had  visited  on  his 
way  to  England.  This  too  was  permitted ;  but  before  the 
new  charter  had  been  sealed  Lord  Baltimore  died.  The 
patent  thereupon  passed  to  his  son  Cecil,  who  was  also  a 
Catholic.  He  devoted  his  life  to  carrying  out  his  father's 
designs.  The  characters  of  the  two  men  were,  in  their 
larger  elements,  not  dissimilar;  and  the  sequel  showed  that 
colonial  enterprise  could  be  better  achieved  by  one  man  of 
kindly  and  liberal  disposition,  and  persistent  resolve,  than  by 
a  corporation,  some  of  whose  members  were  sure  to  thwart 
the  wishes  of  others.  Conditions  of  wider  scope  than  the 
settlement  of  Maryland  obstructed  and  delayed  its  proprie- 
tor's plans;  conflicts  and  changes  of  government  in  Eng- 
land, and  jealousy  and  violence  on  the  part  of  Virginia,  had 
their  influence;  but  this  quiet,  benign,  resolute  young  man 
the  was  but  seven-and-twenty  when  the  grant  made  him 
sovereign  of  a  kingdom)  never  lost  his  temper  or  swerved 
from  his  aim:  overcame,  apparently  without  an  effort,  the 
disabilities  which  might  have  been  expected  to  hamper  the 
professor  of  a  faith  as  little  consonant  with  the  creed  of  the 
two  Charleses  as  of  Cromwell ;  was  as  well  regarded,  politi- 
cally, by  cavaliers  as  by  roundheads ;  and  finally  established 
his  ownership  and  control  of  his  heritage,  and,  after  a  benefi- 
cent rule  of  over  forty  years,  died  in  peace  and  honor  with 


CATHOLIC,  PHILOSOPHER,  AND  REBEL        151 

his  people  and  the  world.  The  story  of  colonial  Maryland 
has  a  flavor  of  its  own,  and  throws  still  further  light  on  the 
subject  of  popular  self-government — the  source  and  solution 
of  American  history. 

The  idea  of  the  Baltimores,  as  outlined  in  their  charter, 
and  followed  in  their  practice,  was  to  try  the  experiment  of 
a  democratic  monarchy.  They  would  found  a  state  the  peo- 
ple of  which  should  enjoy  all  the  freedom  of  action  and 
thought  that  sane  and  well-disposed  persons  can  desire, 
within  the  boundaries  of  their  personal  concerns;  they 
should  not  be  meddled  with;  each  man's  home  should  be 
his  castle ;  they  should  say  what  taxes  should  be  collected, 
and  what  civil  officers  should  attend  to  their  collective 
affairs.  They  should  be  like  passengers  on  a  ship,  free  to 
sleep  or  wake,  sit  or  walk,  speak  or  be  mute,  eat  or  fast,  as 
they  pleased :  do  anything  in  fact  except  scuttle  the  ship  or 
cut  the  rigging — or  ordain  to  what  port  she  should  steer, 
or  what  course  the  helmsman  should  lay.  Matters  of  high 
policy,  in  other  words,  should  be  the  care  of  the  proprietor; 
everything  less  than  that,  broadly  speaking,  should  be  left 
to  the  colonists  themselves.  The  proprietor  could  not  get  as 
close  to  their  personal  needs  as  they  could :  and  they,  pre- 
occupied with  private  interests,  could  not  see  so  far  and 
wide  as  he  could.  If  then  it  were  arranged  that  they 
should  be  afforded  every  facility  and  encouragement  to 
make  their  wants  known:  and  if  it  were  guaranteed  that 
he  would  adopt  every  means  that  experience,  wisdom  and 
good-will  suggested  to  gratify  those  wants :  what  more  could 
mortal  man  ask?  There  was  nothing  abnormal  in  the  idea. 
The  principle  is  the  same  as  that  on  which  the  Creator  has 
placed  man  in  nature :  man  is  perfectly  at  liberty  to  do  as 
he  pleases ;  only,  he  must  adapt  himself  to  the  law  of  gravi- 
tation, to  the  resistance  of  matter,  to  hot  and  cold,  wet  and 
dry,  and  to  the  other  impersonal  necessities  by  which  the 
material  universe  is  conditioned.  The  control  of  these  natu- 
ral laws,  as  they  are  called,  could  not  advantageously  be 


152  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

given  in  charge  to  man ;  even  had  he  the  brains  to  manage 
them,  he  could  not  spare  the  time  from  his  immediate  con- 
cerns. He  is  well  content,  accordingly,  to  leave  them  to  the 
Power  that  put  him  where  he  is ;  and  he  does  not  feel  his 
independence  infringed  upon  in  so  doing.  When  his  little 
business  goes  wrong,  however,  he  can  petition  his  Creator  to 
help  him  out :  or,  what  amounts  to  the  same  thing,  he  can 
find  out  in  what  respect  he  has  failed  to  conform  to  the  laws 
of  nature,  and,  by  returning  into  harmony  with  them,  insure 
himself  success.  What  the  Creator  was  to  mankind  at 
large,  Lord  Baltimore  proposed  to  be  to  his  colony;  and, 
following  this  supreme  example,  and  binding  himself  to 
place  the  welfare  of  his  people  before  all  other  considera- 
tions, how  could  he  make  a  mistake? 

In  arguments  about  the  best  ways  of  managing  nations 
or  communities,  it  has  been  generally  conceded  that  thia 
scheme  of  an  executive  head  on  one  side,  and  a  people  freely 
communicating  their  wants  to  him  on  the  other,  is  sound, 
provided,  first,  that  he  is  as  solicitous  about  their  welfare  as 
they  themselves  are ;  and  secondly,  that  means  exist  for  con- 
tinuous and  unchecked  intercommunication  between  them 
and  him: — it  being  premised,  of  course,  that  the  ability  of 
the  head  is  commensurate  with  his  willingness.  And  leav- 
ing basic  principles  for  the  moment  aside,  it  is  notorious  that 
one-man  power  is  far  prompter,  weightier,  and  cleaner-cut 
than  the  confused  and  incomplete  compromises  of  a  body  of 
representatives  are  apt  to  be. 

All  this  may  be  conceded.  And  yet  experience  shows 
that  the  one-man  system,  even  when  the  man  is  a  Lord 
Baltimore,  is  unsatisfactory.  Lord  Baltimore,  indeed,  finally 
achieved  a  technical  success;  his  people  loved  and  honored 
him,  his  wishes  were  measurably  realized,  and,  so  far  as  he 
was  concerned,  Maryland  was  the  victim  of  fewer  mistakes 
than  were  the  other  colonies.  But  the  fact  that  Lord  Balti- 
more's career'closed  in  peace  and  credit  was  due  less  to  what 
he  did  and  desired,  than  to  the  necessity  his  career  was  un- 


CATHOLIC,  PHILOSOPHER,  AND  REBEL        153 

der  of  sooner  or  later  coining  to  a  close.  Had  he  possessed 
a  hundred  times  the  ability  and  benevolence  that  were  his, 
and  had  been  immortal  into  the  bargain,  the  people  would 
have  cast  him  out ;  they  were  willing  to  tolerate  him  for  a 
few  years,  more  or  less,  but  as  a  fixture — No!  "Tolerate" 
is  too  harsh  a  word ;  but  another  might  be  too  weak.  The 
truth  is,  men  do  not  care  half  so  much  what  they  get,  as 
how  they  get  it.  The  wolf  in  ^Esop's  fable  keenly  wanted 
a  share  of  the  bones  which  made  his  friend  the  mastiff  so 
sleek ;  but  the  hint  that  the  bones  and  the  collar  went  to- 
gether drove  him  hungry  but  free  back  to  his  desert.  It 
is  of  no  avail  to  give  a  man  all  he  asks  for;  he  resents  hav- 
ing to  ask  you  for  it,  and  wants  to  know  by  what  right  you 
have  it  to  give.  A  man  can  be  grateful  for  friendship,  for 
a  sympathetic  look,  for  a  brave  word  spoken  in  his  behalf 
against  odds — he  can  be  your  debtor  for  such  things,  and 
keep  his  manhood  uncompromised.  But  if  you  give  him 
food,  and  ease,  or  preferment,  and  condescension  therewith, 
look  for  no  thanks  from  him ;  esteem  yourself  fortunate  if 
he  do  not  hold  you  his  enemy.  The  gifts  of  the  soul  are 
free ;  but  material  benefits  are  captivity.  So  the  Maryland 
colonists,  recognizing  that  their  proprietor  meant  well,  for- 
gave him  his  generosity,  and  his  activities  in  their  behalf 
— but  only  because  they  knew  that  his  day  would  presently 
be  past.  Man  is  infinite  as  well  as  finite:  infinite  hi  his 
claims,  finite  in  his  power  of  giving.  And  for  Baltimore 
to  presume  to  give  the  people  all  they  claimed,  was  as 
much  as  to  say  that  his  fullness  could  equal  their  want,  or 
that  his  rights  and  capacities  were  more  than  theirs.  He 
gave  them  all  that  a  democracy  can  possess — except  the  one 
thing  that  constitutes  democracy ;  that  is,  absolute  self -direc- 
tion. It  may  well  be  that  their  little  ship  of  state,  steered 
by  themselves,  would  have  encountered  many  mishaps  from 
which  his  sagacious  guidance  preserved  it.  But  rather  rocks 
with  their  pilotage  than  port  with  his :  and  beyond  forgiving 
him  their  magnanimity  could  not  go. 


154  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

There  is  little  more  than  this  to  be  derived  from  study 
of  the  Maryland  experiment.  Let  a  man  manage  himself, 
in  big  as  well  as  in  little  things,  and  he  will  be  happy  on 
raw  clams  and  plain  water,  with  a  snow-drift  for  a  pillow 
— as  we  saw  him  happy  in  Plymouth  Bay:  but  give  him 
roast  ortolans  and  silken  raiment,  and  manage  him  never 
so  little,  and  you  cannot  relieve  his  discontent.  And  is  it 
not  well  that  it  should  be  so?  Verily  it  is — if  America  be 
not  a  dream,  and  immortality  a  delusion. 

Lord  Baltimore  would  perhaps  have  liked  to  see  all  his 
colonists  Catholics;  but  his  experience  of  religious  intoler- 
ance had  not  inflamed  him  against  other  creeds  than  his 
own,  as  would  have  been  the  case  with  a  Spaniard;  it 
seemed  to  awaken  a  desire  to  set  tolerance  an  example. 
Any  one  might  join  his  community  except  felons  and  athe- 
ists ;  and  as  a  matter  of  fact,  his  assortment  of  colonists  soon 
became  as  motley  as  that  of  Williams  in  Providence.  The 
landing  of  the  first  expedition  on  an  island  in  the  Potomac 
was  attended  by  the  making  and  erecting  by  the  Jesuit 
priests  of  a  rude  cross,  and  the  celebration  of  mass;  but 
there  were  even  then  more  Protestants  than  Catholics  in 
the  party;  and  though  the  leadership  was  Catholic  for  many 
years,  it  was  not  on  account  of  the  numerical  majority  of 
persons  of  that  faith.  Episcopalians  ejected  from  New  Eng- 
land, Puritans  fleeing  from  the  old  country,  Quakers  and 
Anabaptists  who  were  unwelcome  everywhere  else,  met 
with  hospitality  in  Maryland.  Let  them  but  believe  in 
Jesus  Christ,  and  all  else  was  forgiven  them.  Neverthe- 
less, Catholicism  was  the  religion  of  the  country.  Its  in- 
habitants might  be  likened  to  promiscuous  guests  at  an  inn 
whose  landlord  made  no  criticisms  on  their  beliefs,  further 
than  to  inscribe  the  Papal  insignia  on  the  signboard  over 
his  door.  Thus  liberty  was  discriminated  from  license,  and 
in  the  midst  of  tolerance  there  was  order. 

The  first  settlement  was  made  on  a  small  creek  entering 
the  north  side  of  the  Potomac.  Here  an  Indian  village  al- 


CATHOLIC,  PHILOSOPHER,  AND  REBEL        155 

ready  existed ;  but  its  occupants  were  on  the  point  of  desert- 
ing it,  and  were  glad  to  accept  payment  from  the  colonists 
for  the  site  which  they  had  no  further  use  for.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  colonists  could  avail  themselves  of  the  wigwams 
just  as  they  stood,  and  had  their  maize  fields  ready  cleared. 
Baltimore,  meanwhile,  through  his  agent  (and  brother) 
Leonard  Calvert,  furnished  them  with  all  the  equipment 
they  needed;  and  so  well  was  the  way  smoothed  before 
them,  that  the  colony  made  progress  ten  times  as  rapidly  as 
Virginia  had  done.  They  called  their  new  home  St.  Mary's; 
and  the  date  of  its  occupation  was  1634.  Their  first  popular 
assembly  met  for  legislation  in  the  second  month  of  the  en- 
suing year.  In  that  and  subsequent  meetings  they  asserted 
their  right  of  jurisdiction,  their  right  to  enact  laws,  the  free- 
dom of  "holy  church"  :  his  lordship  gently  giving  them  their 
head.  In  1642,  perhaps  to  disburden  themselves  of  some  of 
their  obligation  to  him,  they  voted  him  a  subsidy.  Almost 
the  only  definite  privilege  which  he  seems  to  have  retained 
was  that  of  pre-emption  of  lands.  At  this  period  (1643)  all 
England  was  by  the  ears,  and  Baltimore's  hold  upon  his 
colony  was  relaxed.  In  Virginia  and  the  other  colonies, 
which  had  governors  of  their  own,  the  neglect  of  the  mother 
country  gave  them  opportunity  for  progress;  but  the  people 
of  Maryland,  no  longer  feeling  the  sway  of  their  non-resident 
proprietor,  and  having  no  one  else  to  look  after  them,  became 
disorderly ;  which  would  not  have  happened,  had  they  been 
empowered  to  elect  a  ruler  from  among  themselves.  Balti- 
more's enemies  took  advantage  of  these  disturbances  to  peti- 
tion for  his  removal  from  the  proprietorship;  but  he  was 
equal  to  the  occasion ;  and  by  confirming  his  colonists  in  all 
just  liberties,  with  freedom  of  conscience  in  the  foreground, 
he  composed  their  dissensions,  and  took  away  his  enemies' 
ground  of  complaint.  In  1649,  the  legislature  sat  for  the 
first  time  in  two  branches,  so  that  one  might  be  a  check 
upon  the  other.  Upon  this  principle  all  American  legisla- 
tures are  still  formed. 


156  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

* 

But  the  reign  of  Cromwell  in  England  gave  occasion  for 
sophistries  in  Maryland.  All  other  Englishmen,  in  the  colo- 
nies or  at  home,  were  members  of  a  commonwealth;  but 
Baltimore  still  claimed  the  Marylanders'  allegiance.  On 
what  grounds? — for  since  the  king  from  whom  he  derived 
his  power  was  done  away  with,  so  must  be  the  derivitive 
power.  Baltimore  stood  between  them  and  republicanism. 
To  give  edge  to  the  predicament,  the  colony  was  menaced 
by  covetous  Virginia  on  one  hand,  and  by  fugitive  Charles 
II.,  with  a  governor  of  his  own  manufacture,  on  the  other. 
Calamity  seemed  at  hand. 

In  1650,  the  year  after  Charles  I.'s  execution,  the  Parlia- 
ment appointed  commissioners  to  bring  royalist  colonies  into 
line;  Maryland  was  to  be  reannexed  to  Virginia;  Bennett, 
then  governor  of  Virginia,  and  Clairborne,  unseated  Stone, 
Baltimore's  lieutenant,  appointed  an  executive  council,  and 
ordered  that  burgesses  were  to  be  elected  by  supporters  of 
Cromwell  only.  The  question  of  reannexation  was  referred 
to  Parliament.  Baltimore  protested  that  Maryland  had  been 
less  royalist  than  Virginia ;  and  before  the  Parliament  could 
decide  what  to  do,  it  was  dissolved,  carrying  with  it  the  au- 
thority of  Bennett  and  Clairborne.  Stone  now  reappeared 
defiant;  but  the  Virginians  attacked  him,  and  he  surren- 
dered on  compulsion.  The  Virginian  government  decreed 
that  no  Roman  Catholics  could  hereafter  vote  or  be  elected. 

Baltimore,  taking  his  stand  on  his  charter,  declared  these 
doings  mutinous ;  and  Cromwell  supported  him.  Stone  once 
more  asserted  himself ;  but  in  the  skirmish  with  the  Virgin- 
ians that  followed,  he  was  defeated,  yielded  (he  seems  to 
have  had  no  granite  in  his  composition),  and,  with  his  sup- 
porters, was  ordered  to  be  shot.  His  life  was  spared,  how- 
ever ;  but  Cromwell,  again  appealed  to,  refused  to  act.  The 
ownership  of  Maryland  was  therefore  still  undetermined. 
It  was  not  until  1657  that  Baltimore  and  Bennett  agreed 
to  compromise  their  dispute.  The  boundary  between  the 
two  domains  was  maintained,  but  settlers  from  Virginia 


CATHOLIC,  PHILOSOPHER,  AND  REBEL        157 

were  not  to  be  disturbed  in  their  holdings.  The  second 
year  after  Cromwell's  death,  the  representatives  of  Mary- 
land met  and  voted  themselves  an  independent  assembly, 
making  Fendall,  Baltimore's  appointee,  subject  to  their  will. 
Finally,  being  weary  of  turmoil,  they  made  it  felony  to  alter 
what  they  had  done.  The  colony  was  then  abreast  of  Vir- 
ginia in  political  privileges,  and  had  a  population  of  about 
ten  thousand,  in  spite  of  its  vicissitudes. 

But  the  quiet,  invincible  Lord  Baltimore  was  still  to  be 
reckoned  with.  At  the  Restoration,  he  sent  his  deputy  to 
the  colony,  which  submitted  to  his  authority,  and  Fendall 
was  convicted  of  treason  for  having  allowed  the  assembly  to 
overrule  him.  A  general  amnesty  was  proclaimed,  however, 
and  the  kindliness  of  the  government  during  the  remainder 
of  the  proprietor's  undisputed  sway  attracted  thousands  of 
settlers  from  all  the  nations  of  Europe.  Between  Baltimore 
and  the  people,  a  give-and-take  policy  was  established,  one 
privilege  being  set  against  another,  so  that  their  liberties 
were  maintained,  and  his  rights  recognized.  Though  he 
stood  in  his  own  person  for  all  that  was  opposed  to  democ- 
racy, he  presided  over  a  community  which  was  essentially 
democratic;  and  he  had  the  breadth  of  mind  to  acknowl- 
edge that  because  he  owned  allegiance  to  kings  and  popes, 
was  no  reason  why  others  should  do  so.  Suum  cuique. 
Could  he  but  have  gone  a  step  further,  and  denied  himself 
the  gratification  of  retaining  his  hard-earned  proprietorship, 
he  would  have  been  one  of  the  really  great  men  of  history. 

The  ripple  of  events  which  we  have  recorded  may  seem 
too  insignificant ;  of  still  less  import  is  the  story  of  the  efforts 
of  Clairborne,  from  1634  to  1647,  to  gain,  or  retain  posses- 
sion of  Kent  Island,  in  the  Chesapeake,  on  which  he  had 
* 'squatted"  before  Baltimore  got  his  charter.  Yet,  from 
another  point  of  view,  even  slight  matters  may  weigh  when 
they  are  related  to  the  stirring  of  the  elements  which  are  to 
crystallize  into  a  nation.  Maryland,  like  a  bird  half  tamed, 
was  ready  to  fly  away  when  the  cage  door  was  left  open, 


I58  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

and  yet  was  not  averse  to  its  easy  confinement  when  the 
door  was  shut  again.  But,  unlike  the  bird,  time  made  it 
fonder  of  liberty,  instead  of  leading  it  to  forget  it;  and 
when  the  cage  fell  apart,  it  was  at  home  in  the  free  air. 

The  settlement  of  the  Carolinas,  during  the  twenty  years 
or  so  from  1660  to  1680,  presented  features  of  singular  gro- 
tesqueness.  There  was,  on  one  side,  a  vast  wilderness  cover- 
ing the  region  now  occupied  by  North  and  South  Carolina, 
and  westward  to  the  Pacific.  It  had  been  nibbled  at,  for  a 
hundred  years,  by  Spaniards,  French  and  English,  but  no 
permanent  hold  had  been  got  upon  it.  Here  were  thousands 
upon  thousands  of  square  miles  in  which  nature  rioted  un- 
restrained, with  semi-tropic  fervor ;  the  topography  of  which 
was  unknown,  and  whose  character  in  any  respect  was  a 
matter  of  pure  conjecture.  This  wilderness  was  on  one  side ; 
on  the  other  were  a  worthless  king,  a  handful  of  courtiers, 
and  a  couple  of  highly  gifted  doctrinaires,  Lord  Shaftesbury 
and  John  Locke,  the  philosopher.  "We  can  picture  Charles 
II.  lolling  in  his  chair,  with  a  map  of  the  Americas  spread 
out  on  his  knees,  while  the  other  gentlemen  in  big  wigs  and 
silk  attire,  and  long  rapiers  dangling  at  their  sides,  are 
grouped  about  him.  "I'll  give  you  all  south  of  Virginia," 
says  he,  indicating  the  territory  with  a  sweep  of  his  long 
fingers.  "Ashley,  you  and  your  friend  Locke  can  draw  up 
a  constitution,  and  stuff  it  full  of  your  fine  ideas ;  they  sound 
well :  we'll  see  how  they  work.  You  shall  be  kings  every 
man  of  you;  and  may  you  like  it  no  worse  than  I  do!  You'll 
have  no  France  or  Holland  to  thwart  you — only  bogs  and 
briers  and  a  few  naked  blacks.  Your  charter  shall  pass  the 
seals  to-morrow:  and  much  good  may  it  do  you!" 

So  the  theorists  and  the  courtiers  set  out  to  subdue  the 
untutored  savageness  of  nature  with  a  paper  preamble  and 
diagrams  and  rules  and  inhibitions,  and  orders  of  nobility 
and  a  college  of  heralds,  and  institutions  of  slavery  and  serf- 
dom, and  definitions  of  freeholders  and  landgraves,  caciques 
and  palatines ;  and  specifications  of  fifths  for  proprietors,  fifths 


CATHOLIC,  PHILOSOPHER,  AND  REBEL        159 

for  the  nobility,  and  the  rest  for  the  common  herd,  who  were 
never  to  be  permitted  to  be  anything  but  the  common  herd, 
with  no  suffrage,  no  privileges,  and  no  souls.  All  contin- 
gencies were  provided  against,  except  the  one  contingency, 
not  wholly  unimportant,  that  none  of  the  proposals  of  the 
Model  Constitution  could  be  carried  into  effect.  Strange, 
that  Ashley  Cooper — as  Lord  Shaftesbury  was  then — one 
of  the  most  brilliant  men  in  Europe,  and  John  Locke, 
should  get  together  and  draw  squares  over  a  sheet  of 
paper,  each  representing  four  hundred  and  eighty  thousand 
acres,  with  a  cacique  and  landgraves  and  their  appurte- 
nances in  each — and  that  they  should  fail  to  perceive  that 
corresponding  areas  would  never  be  marked  out  in  the  path- 
less forests,  and  that  noblemen  could  not  be  found  nor  created 
to  take  up  their  stand,  like  chessmen,  each  in  his  lonely  and 
inaccessible  morass  or  mountain  or  thicket,  and  exercise  the 
prerogatives  of  the  paper  preamble  over  trees  and  panthers 
and  birds  of  the  air!  How  could  men  of  such  radiant  in- 
telligence as  Locke  and  Shaftesbury  unquestionably  were, 
show  themselves  so  radically  ignorant  of  the  nature  of  their 
f ellowmen,  and  of  the  elementary  principles  of  colonization? 
The  whole  thing  reads,  to-day,  like  some  stupendous  jest; 
yet  it  was  planned  in  grave  earnest,  and  persons  were  found 
to  go  across  the  Atlantic  and  try  to  make  it  work. 

Lord  Shaftesbury  was  one  of  the  Hampshire  Coopers, 
and  the  first  earl.  He  was  a  sort  of  English  Voltaire :  small 
and  thin,  nervous  and  fractious,  with  a  great  cold  brain,  no 
affections  and  no  illusions;  he  had  faith  in  organizations, 
but  none  in  man;  was  destitute  of  compunctions,  careless 
of  conventions  and  appearances,  cynical,  penetrating,  and 
frivolous.  He  was  a  skeptic  in  religion,  but  a  devotee  of 
astrology ;  easily  worried  in  safety,  but  cool  and  audacious 
in  danger.  He  despised  if  he  did  not  hate  the  people,  and 
regarded  kings  as  an  unavoidable  nuisance;  the  state,  he 
thought,  was  the  aristocracy,  whose  business  it  was  to  keep 
the  people  down  and  hold  the  king  in  check.  His  career 


160  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

— now  supporting  the  royalists,  now  the  roundheads,  now 
neither — seems  incoherent  and  unprincipled ;  but  in  truth  he 
was  one  of  the  least  variable  men  of  his  time ;  he  held  to  his 
course,  and  king  and  parliament  did  the  tacking.  He  was 
an  incorruptible  judge,  though  he  took  bribes;  and  an  un- 
erring one,  though  he  disregarded  forms  of  law.  He  was 
tried  for  treason,  and  acquitted;  joined  the  Monmouth  con- 
spiracy, and  escaped  to  Holland,  where  he  died  at  the  age 
of  sixty-two.  What  he  lacked  was  human  sympathies, 
which  are  the  beginning  of  wisdom;  and  this  deficiency  it 
was,  no  doubt,  that  led  him  into  the  otherwise  incompre- 
hensible folly  of  the  Carolina  scheme. 

Locke  could  plead  the  excuse  of  being  totally  unfamiliar 
with  practical  life;  he  was  a  philosopher  of  abstractions, 
who  made  an  ideal  world  to  fit  his  theories  about  it.  He 
could  write  an  essay  on  the  Understanding,  but  was  un- 
versed in  Common-sense.  His  nature  was  more  calm  and 
normal  than  Shaftesbury's,  but  in  their  intellectual  conclu- 
sions they  were  not  dissimilar.  The  views  about  the  com- 
mon people  which  Sir  "William  Berkeley  expressed  with 
stupid  brutality,  they  stated  with  punctual  elegance.  They 
were  well  mated  for  the  purpose  in  hand,  and  they  per- 
formed it  with  due  deliberation  and  sobriety.  It  was  not 
until  five  years  after  the  grant  was  made  that  the  constitu- 
tion was  written  and  sealed.  It  achieved  an  instantaneous 
success  in  England,  much  as  a  brilliant  novel  might,  in  our 
time ;  and  the  authors  were  enthusiastically  belauded.  The 
proprietors — Albemarle,  Craven,  Clarendon,  Berkeley,  Sir 
William  Berkeley,  Sir  John  Colleton  and  Sir  George  Car- 
teret,  and  Shaftesbury  himself — began  to  look  about  for 
their  serfs  and  caciques,  and  to  think  of  their  revenues. 
Meanwhile  the  primeval  forest  across  three  thousand  miles 
of  ocean  laughed  with  its  innumerable  leaves,  and  waved  its 
boughs  in  the  breath  of  the  spirit  of  liberty.  The  laws  of 
the  study  went  forth  to  battle  with  the  laws  of  nature. 

Ignorant  of  these  courtly  and  scholarly  proceedings,   a 


CATHOLIC,  PHILOSOPHER,  AND  REBEL        161 

small  knot  of  bona-fide  settlers  had  built  their  huts  on  Albe- 
marle  Sound,  and  had  for  some  years  been  living  there  in 
the  homeliest  and  most  uneducated  peace  and  simplicity. 
Some  had  come  from  Virginia,  some  from  New  England, 
and  others  from  the  island  of  Bermuda.  They  had  their 
little  assembly  and  their  governor  Stevens,  their  humble 
plantations,  their  modest  trade,  their  beloved  solitudes,  and 
the  plainest  and  least  obtrusive  laws  imaginable.  They 
paddled  up  and  down  their  placid  bayous  and  rivers  in 
birch-bark  canoes;  they  shot  deer  and  'possums  for  food 
and  panthers  for  safety,  they  loved  their  wives  and  begat 
their  children,  they  wore  shirts  and  leggins  of  deerskin  like 
the  Indians,  and  they  breathed  the  pure  wholesomeness  of 
the  warm  southern  air.  When  to  these  backwoods  inno- 
cents was  borne  from  afar  the  marvelous  rumors  of  the  silk- 
stockinged  and  lace-ruffled  glories,  originated  during  an  idle 
morning  in  the  king's  dressing-room,  which  were  to  trans- 
figure their  forest  into  trim  gardens  and  smug  plantations, 
surrounding  royal  palaces  and  sumptuous  hunting  pavilions, 
perambulated  by  uniformed  officials,  cultivated  by  meek 
armies  of  serfs,  looking  up  from  their  labors  only  to  doff 
their  caps  to  lordly  palatines  and  lily-fingered  ladies  with 
high  heels  and  low  corsages :  when  they  tried  to  picture  to 
themselves  their  solemn  glades  and  shadow-haunted  streams 
and  inviolate  hills,  then*  eyries  of  eagles  and  lairs  of  stag  and 
puma,  the  savage  beauty  of  their  perilous  swamps,  all  the 
wild  magnificence  of  this  pure  home  of  theirs — metamor- 
phosed by  royal  edict  into  a  magnified  Versailles,  in  which 
lutes  and  mandolins  should  take  the  place  of  the  wolf's 
howl  and  the  panther's  scream,  the  keen  scent  of  the  pine 
balsam  be  replaced  by  the  reek  of  musk  and  patchouli,  the 
honest  sanctity  of  their  couches  of  fern  give  way  to  the  em- 
broidered corruption  of  a  fine  lady's  bedchamber,  the  simple 
vigor  of  their  pioneer  parliament  bewitch  itself  into  a  glit- 
tering senate  chamber,  where  languid  chancellors  fingered 
their  golden  chains  and  exchanged  witty  epigrams  with  big- 


162  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

wigged,  snuff -taking  cavaliers: — when  they  attempted  to 
house  these  strange  ideas  in  their  unsophisticated  brains, 
they  must  have  stared  at  one  another  with  a  naive  per- 
plexity which  slowly  broadened  their  tanned  and  bearded 
visages  into  contagious  grins.  They  looked  at  their  hearty, 
clear-eyed  wives,  and  watched  the  gambols  of  their  sturdy 
children,  and  shook  their  heads,  and  turned  to  their  work 
once  more. 

The  first  movements  of  the  new  dispensation  took  the 
form  of  trying  to  draw  the  colonists  together  into  towns, 
of  reviving  the  Navigation  Acts,  of  levying  taxes  on  their 
infant  commerce,  and  in  general  of  tying  fetters  of  official 
red  tape  on  the  brawny  limbs  of  a  primitive  and  natural 
civilization.  The  colony  was  accused  of  being  the  refuge 
of  outlaws  and  traitors,  rogues  and  heretics;  and  Sir  Wil- 
liam Berkeley,  governor  of  Virginia,  one  of  the  proprietors 
under  the  Model  Constitution,  was  deputed  to  make  as 
much  mischief  in  the  virgin  settlement  as  he  could. 

The  colonists  numbered  about  four  thousand,  spread  over 
a  large  territory ;  they  did  not  want  to  desert  their  palmetto- 
thatched  cabins  and  strenuously-cleared  acres;  they  disliked 
crowding  into  towns;  they  saw  no  justice  in  paying  to  in- 
tangible and  alien  proprietors  a  penny  tax  on  their  tobacco 
exports  to  New  England — though  they  paid  it  nevertheless. 
They  particularly  objected  to  the  interference  of  Governor 
Berkeley,  for  they  knew  him  well.  And  when  the  free  elec- 
tion of  their  assembly  was  attacked,  they  sent  emissaries  to 
England  to  remonstrate,  and  meanwhile,  John  Culpepper 
leading,  and  without  waiting  for  the  return  of  their  emissa- 
ries, they  arose  and  wiped  out  the  things  and  persons  that 
were  objectionable,  and  then  returned  serenely  to  their 
business.  They  did  not  fly  into  a  passion,  and  froth  at  the 
mouth,  and  massacre  and  torture;  but  quietly  and  inflex- 
ibly, with  hardly  a  keener  flash  from  their  fearless  eyes, 
they  put  things  to  rights,  and  thought  no  more  about  it. 

Such  treasonable    proceedings,    however,    fluttered    the 


CATHOLIC,  PHILOSOPHER,  AND  REBEL        163 

council  chambers  in  London  sorely,  and  stout  John  Cul- 
pepper,  who  believed  in  popular  liberty  and  was  not  afraid 
to  say  so,  went  to  England  to  justify  what  had  been  done. 
He  was  arrested  and  put  on  trial,  though  he  demanded  to 
be  tried,  if  at  all,  in  the  place  where  the  offense  was  com- 
mitted. The  intent  of  his  adversaries  was  not  to  give  him 
justice,  but  simply  to  hang  him ;  and  why  go  to  the  trouble 
and  expense  of  carrying  him  to  Carolina  to  do  that?  He 
went  near  to  becoming  a  martyr,  did  stout  John ;  but,  un- 
expectedly, Shaftesbury,  who  might  believe  in  despotism, 
but  who  fretted  to  behold  injustice,  undertook  his  defense 
and  brought  him  out  clear.  The  rest  of  the  "rebels"  were 
amnestied  the  following  year,  1681.  But  one  Seth  Sothel, 
who  had  bought  out  Lord  Clarendon's  proprietary  rights, 
was  sent  out  as  governor;  and  after  escaping  from  the  Al- 
gerine  pirates,  who  captured  and  kept  him  for  a  couple  of 
years,  he  arrived  at  Albemarle,  commissioned,  as  Bancroft 
admirably  puts  it,  to  "Transform  a  log  cabin  into  a  baronial 
castle,  a  negro  slave  into  a  herd  of  leet-men."  Sothel  was 
not  long  in  perceiving  that  this  was  beyond  his  powers,  but 
he  could  steal:  and  so  he  did  for  a  few  years,  when  the 
colonists,  thinking  he  had  enough,  unseated  him,  tried  him, 
and  sentenced  him  to  a  year's  exile  and  to  nevermore  be 
officer  of  theirs. 

These  planters  of  North  Carolina  were  good  Americans 
from  the  beginning,  endowed  with  a  courage  and  love  of 
liberty  which  foretold  the  spirit  of  "Washington's  army,  and 
a  religious  tolerance  which  did  not  prevent  them  from  listen- 
ing with  sympathy  and  approval  to  the  spiritual  harangues 
of  Fox,  the  Quaker,  who  sojourned  among  them  with  gratify- 
ing results.  Their  prejudice  against  towns  continued,  and 
one  must  walk  far  to  visit  them,  with  only  marks  on  the 
forest  trees  to  guide.  They  were  inveterately  contented, 
and  having  emancipated  themselves  from  the  blight  of  the 
Model  Constitution,  rapidly  became  prosperous.  The  only 
effect  of  Messrs.  Locke  and  Shaftesbury's  scheme  of  an  aria- 


164  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES 

tocratic  Utopia  was  to  make  the  settlers  conscious  of  their 
strength  and  devoted  to  their  freedom.  Indeed,  the  North 
Carolinians  were  in  great  part  men  who  had  not  only  fled 
from  the  oppressions  of  England,  but  had  found  even  the 
mild  restraints  of  the  other  colonies  irksome. 

The  fate  of  the  Model  in  South  Carolina  was  similar, 
though  the  preliminary  experiences  were  different.  When 
Joseph  West,  agent  for  the  proprietors,  and  William  Sayle, 
experienced  in  colonizing,  took  three  shiploads  of  emigrants 
to  the  junction  of  the  Ashley  and  Cooper  rivers,  about  twenty 
miles  south  of  latitude  33°,  they  had  a  copy  of  the  Model 
with  them.  But  the  first  thing  they  did  aftei  getting  ashore 
was  to  vote  that  its  provisions  were  impracticable,  and  to 
revise  it  to  such  a  degree  that,  when  it  was  sent  over  to 
England  for  approval,  its  authors  did  not  recognize  their 
work,  and  disowned  it.  But  the  settlers  constituted  their 
assembly  on  the  general  lines  which  might  now  be  called 
American,  and  put  up  their  huts,  in  1672,  on  the  ground 
where  now  stands  Charleston.  The  climate  was  too  Hot  for 
white  labor,  and  the  timely  arrival  of  negro  slaves  was  wel- 
come; in  a  few  years  they  doubled  the  number  of  the  whites. 
The  staple  crops  of  the  southern  plantations  needed  much 
more  work  than  those  of  New  England  and  the  north,  and 
this,  as  well  as  the  preference  of  the  negroes  themselves  for 
the  warmer  climates,  determined  the  distribution  of  black 
slavery  on  the  Atlantic  coast. 

Dutch  settlers  presently  joined  the  English;  a  Scotch- 
Irish  colony  at  Port  Royal  was  set  upon  by  the  Spaniards, 
who,  in  accordance  with  the  characteristic  Spanish  p'licy, 
massacred  the  inhabitants  and  burned  the  houses.  But 
later  the  revocation  by  Louis  XIV.  of  the  amnesty  to 
Huguenots  caused  the  latter  to  fly  their  country  and  dis 
perse  themselves  over  Europe  and  America;  no  higher  or 
finer  class  of  men  and  women  ever  joined  the  ranks  of  ex- 
ile, and  they  were  everywhere  welcomed.  Colonies  of  them 
settled  all  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard;  and  around  Charles- 


CATHOLIC,  PHILOSOPHER,  AND  REBEL        165 

ton  many  from  Languedoc  found  a  congenial  home,  and  be- 
came a  valuable  and  distinguished  part  of  the  population. 
America  could  not  have  been  complete  without  the  leaven 
of  the  heroic  French  Protestants. 

Meanwhile  the  proprietors  were  gradually  submitting, 
with  no  good  grace,  however,  to  the  inevitable.  Their 
Model  remained  a  model — something  never  to  be  put  to 
practical  use.  On  paper  was  it  born,  and  on  paper  should 
it  remain  forever.  The  proprietors  were  kings,  by  grace  of 
Charles  II.,  but  they  had  neither  army  nor  navy,  and  their 
subjects  declined  to  be  serfs.  They  declined  into  the  status 
of  land  speculators ;  the  governors  whom  they  sent  out  did 
nothing  but  fill  their  pockets  and  let  the  people  have  the 
rest.  At  last,  it  was  enough  for  the  proprietors  to  suggest 
anything  for  the  people  to  negative  it,  whether  it  were  good 
or  bad.  They  not  only  avowed  their  natural  right  to  do  as 
they  pleased,  but  deemed  it  due  to  their  self-respect  not 
to  do  what  was  pleasing  to  their  tinsel  sovereigns  in  Lon- 
don. And  finally,  when  Colleton,  one  of  the  sovereigns  in 
question,  tried  to  declare  martial  law  in  the  colony,  on  the 
plea  of  danger  from  Indians  or  Spanish,  the  indomitable 
freemen  treated  him  as  their  brethren  at  Albemarle  had 
treated  Sothel.  The  next  year  saw  "William  and  Mary  on 
the  English  throne;  Shaftesbury  had  died  seven  years  be- 
fore ;  and  the  Great  Model  subsided  without  a  bubble  into 
the  vacuum  of  historical  absurdities. 

We  left  Virginia  awaiting  the  return  of  the  envoys  who 
had  gone  to  ask  Charles  for  justice  and  protection  against 
the  tyranny  of  Berkeley.  Charles,  as  we  know,  first  prom- 
ised the  reforms,  and  then  broke  his  promise,  as  all  Stuarts 
must.  But  before  the  envoys  could  return  with  their  heavy 
news,  there  had  been  stirring  things  done  and  suffered  in 
Virginia. 

The  character  of  Berkeley  is  as  detestable  as  any  known 
in  the  annals  of  the  American  colonies.  Many  of  his  acts. 


166  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

and  all  the  closing  scenes  of  his  career,  seem  hardly  compati- 
ble with  moral  sanity ;  in  our  day,  when  science  is  so  prone 
to  find  the  explanation  of  crime  in  insanity,  he  would  un- 
doubtedly have  been  adjudged  to  the  nearest  asylum.  In 
his  early  years,  he  had  been  stupid  and  illiberal,  but  nothing 
worse;  in  his  old  age,  he  seemed  to  seek  out  opportunities 
of  wickedness  and  outrage,  and  at  last  he  gave  way  to 
transports  which  could  only  be  likened  to  those  of  a  fiend 
from  the  Pit,  permitted  for  a  season  to  afflict  the  earth.  He 
was  as  base  as  he  was  wicked;  a  thief,  and  perjured,  as  well 
as  an  insatiable  murderer.  The  only  trait  that  seems  to  ally 
him  with  manhood  is  itself  animal  and  repulsive.  He  had 
wholly  abandoned  any  pretense  of  self-control;  and  in  some 
of  the  outbursts  of  his  frenzy  he  seems  to  have  become  in- 
sensible even  to  the  suggestions  of  physical  fear.  But  this 
can  hardly  be  accorded  the  name  of  courage ;  rather  is  it  to 
be  attributed  to  the  suffusion  of  blood  to  the  brain  which 
drives  the  Malay  to  run  amuck. 

Virginia  had  been  nurtured  in  liberty,  and  was  ill  pre- 
pared for  despotism.  On  the  contrary,  she  was  almost 
ready  to  doubt  the  wisdom  or  convenience  of  any  govern- 
ment whatever,  except  such  as  was  spontaneously  furnished 
by  the  generous  and  magnanimous  instincts  of  her  people. 
There  were  no  towns,  and  none  of  the  vice  and  selfishness 
which  crowded  populations  engender.  Roads,  bridges,  pub- 
lic works  of  any  sort  were  unknown;  the  population  seldom 
met  except  at  races  or  to  witness  court  proceedings.  The 
great  planters  lived  in  comparative  comfort,  but  they  were 
as  much  in  love  with  freedom  as  were  the  common  people. 
This  state  of  things  was  the  outcome  of  the  growth  of  fifty 
years;  and  most  of  the  eight  thousand  inhabitants  of  the 
colony  were  born  on  the  soil,  and  loved  it  as  the  only  home 
they  knew. 

The  chief  injury  they  had  suffered  was  from  the  depre- 
dations of  the  Indians,  who,  on  their  side,  could  plead  that 
they  had  received  less  than  justice  at  the  colonists'  hands. 


CATHOLIC,  PHILOSOPHER,  AND  REBEL        167 

Border  raids  and  killings  became  more  and  more  frequent 
and  alarming;  the  savages  had  learned  the  use  of  muskets, 
and  were  good  marksmen.  They  built  a  fort  on  the  Mary- 
land border,  and  for  a  time  resisted  siege  operations;  and 
when  at  length  some  of  the  chiefs  came  out  to  parley,  they 
were  seized  and  shot.  The  rest  of  the  Indian  garrison  es- 
caped by  night,  and  slaughtered  promiscuously  all  whom 
they  could  surprise  along  the  countryside.  A  force  was 
raised  to  check  them,  and  avenge  the  murders;  but  before 
it  could  come  in  contact  with  them,  Berkeley  sent  out  a  per- 
emptory summons  that  they  should  return. 

What  was  the  explanation  of  this  extraordinary  step? 
Simply  that  the  Governor  had  the  monopoly  of  the  Indian 
trade,  which  was  very  valuable,  and  would  not  permit  the 
Indians  who  traded  with  him  to  be  driven  away.  In  order 
to  supply  his  already  overloaded  pockets  with  money,  he  was 
willing  to  see  the  red  men  murder  with  impunity,  and  with 
the  brutalities  of  torture  and  outrage,  the  men,  women  and 
children  of  his  own  race.  But  the  Indians  themselves  seem 
admirable  in  contrast  with  the  inhumanity  of  this  gray- 
haired,  wine-bloated,  sordid  cavalier  of  seventy. 

The  troops  on  which  the  safety  of  the  colonists  depended 
reluctantly  retired.  Immediately  the  savages  renewed  their 
attacks;  three  hundred  settlers  were  killed.  Still  Berkeley 
refused  to  permit  anything  to  be  done;  forts  might  be 
erected  on  the  borders,  but  these,  besides  being  of  great  ex- 
pense to  the  people,  were  wholly  useless  for  their  defense, 
inasmuch  as  the  savages  could  without  difficulty  slip  by 
them  under  cover  of  the  forest.  The  raids  continued,  and 
the  plantations  were  abandoned,  till  not  one  in  seven  re- 
mained. The  inhabitants  were  terror-stricken;  no  man's 
life  was  safe.  At  last  permission  was  asked  that  the  people 
might  raise  and  equip  a  force  at  their  own  expense,  in  the 
exercise  of  the  universal  right  of  self -protection ;  but  even 
this  was  violently  forbidden  by  the  Governor,  who  threat- 
ened punishment  on  any  who  should  presume  to  take  arms 


168  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

against  them.  All  traffic  with  them  had  also  been  inter- 
dicted; but  it  was  known  that  Berkeley  himself  continued 
his  trading  with  those  whose  hands  were  red  with  the 
blood  of  the  wives,  fathers  and  children  of  Virginia. 

Finally,  in  1676,  the  report  came  that  an  army  of  Indians 
were  approaching  Jamestown.  Unless  resistance  were  at 
once  made,  there  seemed  nothing  to  prevent  the  extinction 
of  the  colony.  Berkeley,  apparently  for  no  better  reason 
than  that  he  would  not  recede  from  a  position  once  taken, 
adhered  to  his  order  that  nothing  should  be  done. 

There  was  at  that  tune  in  Virginia  a  young  English- 
man of  about  thirty,  named  Nathaniel  Bacon.  He  was  de- 
scended from  good  ancestors,  and  had  received  a  thorough 
education,  including  terms  in  the  Inns  of  Court.  He  was 
intellectual,  thoughtful,  and  self-contained,  with  a  clear 
mind,  a  generous  nature,  and  the  power  of  winning  and  con- 
trolling men.  He  had  arrived  in  the  colony  a  little  more 
thar  a  year  before,  and  had  been  chosen  to  the  council;  he 
was  wealthy  and  aristocratic,  yet  a  known  friend  of  the  peo- 
ple. Born  in  1642,  he  was  familiar  with  revolutions,  and 
had  formed  his  own  opinions  as  to  the  rights  of  man.  He 
had  a  plantation  on  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Richmond ; 
and  during  the  late  Indian  troubles,  had  lost  his  overseer. 
Coming  down  on  his  affairs  to  Jamestown,  he  fell  into  talk 
with  some  friends,  who  suggested  crossing  the  river  to  see 
some  of  the  volunteers  who  had  come  together  for  defense. 
These  men  were  in  a  mood  of  excited  exasperation  at  the 
sinister  conduct  of  the  governor,  and  ready  to  follow  extreme 
counsels  had  they  had  a  leader  with  the  boldness  and  ability 
to  put  himself  at  their  head. 

The  tall,  slender  figure  and  grave  features  of  Bacon  were 
well-known.  As  he  advanced  toward  the  troop  of  stalwart 
young  fellows,  who  were  sullenly  discussing  the  situation, 
he  was  recognized;  and  something  seems  to  have  suggested 
to  them  that  he  was  come  with  a  purpose.  Conclusions  are 
sudden  at  such  times,  and  impulses  contagious  as  fire.  He 


CATHOLIC,  PHILOSOPHER,  AND  REBEL        169 

was  the  leader  whom  they  sought.  "A  Bacon — a  Bacon!" 
shouted  some  one;  and  instantly  the  cry  was  taken  up. 
They  thronged  around  him,  welcoming  him,  cheering  him, 
exclaiming  that  they  would  follow  him,  that  with  them  at 
his  back  he  should  save  the  country  in  spite  of  the  gov- 
ernor! They  were  fiery  and  emotional,  after  the  manner 
of  the  sons  of  the  Old  Dominion,  and  the  wrongs  of  many 
kinds  which  had  long  been  rankling  in  their  hearts  now  de- 
manded to  be  requited  by  some  action — no  matter  how  dar- 
ing. Virginians  never  shrank  from  danger. 

Bacon  had  been  wholly  unprepared  for  this  outburst ;  but 
he  had  a  strong,  calm  soul,  a  ready  brain,  and  the  blood  of 
youth.  He  knew  what  the  colony  had  endured,  and  that 
it  had  nothing  to  hope  from  the  present  government.  He 
had  come  to  America  after  making  the  European  tour,  in- 
tending only  a  visit ;  but  he  had  grown  attached  to  Virginia, 
and  now  that  chance  had  put  this  opportunity  to  help  her, 
he  resolved  to  accept  it.  He  would  throw  in  his  lot  with 
these  spirited  and  fearless  young  patriots — the  first  men  in 
America  who  had  the  right  to  call  the  country  their  own. 
Standing  before  them,  with  his  head  bared,  and  in  a  voice 
that  all  could  hear,  he  solemnly  pledged  himself  to  lead 
them  against  the  Indians,  and  then  aid  them  to  recover  the 
liberties  which  had  been  wrested  from  them.  "And  do 
you,"  he  added,  "pledge  yourselves  to  me!"  His  words 
were  heard  with  tumultuous  enthusiasm,  and  a  round-robin 
was  signed,  binding  all  to  stick  to  their  captain  and  to  one 
another.  That  is  a  document  which  history  would  fain  have 
preserved. 

With  an  army  of  three  hundred  Virginians,  Bacon  set 
forward  against  the  Indians.  Meanwhile  Berkeley,  enraged 
at  this  slight  on  his  authority,  called  some  troops  together 
and  dispatched  them  to  bring  back  "the  rebels."  Thus  was 
seen  the  singular  spectacle  of  a  government  force  marching 
to  apprehend  men  who  were  risking  their  lives  freely  to  repel 
a  danger  imminent  and  common  to  all 
U.S.— 8  VOL.  I. 


170  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

But  Berkeley  was  going  too  far.  Bacon's  act  had  the 
sympathy  of  all  except  such  as  were  as  corrupt  as  the  gov- 
ernor, and  the  men  of  the  lower  counties  revolted,  and  de- 
manded that  the  long  scandal  of  the  continuous  assembly 
should  cease  forthwith.  Berkeley  was  intimidated;  he  had 
not  believed  that  any  spirit  was  left  in  the  colony;  he 
recalled  his  men,  and  consented  to  the  assembly's  dissolu- 
tion. By  the  time  Bacon  and  his  three  hundred  got  back 
from  their  successful  campaign,  the  writs  for  a  new  election 
were  out;  and  he  was  unanimously  chosen  burgess  from 
Henrico.  The  assembly  of  which  he  thus  became  a  mem- 
ber was  for  the  most  part  in  sympathy  with  him;  and 
though,  for  the  benefit  of  the  record,  censure  was  passsd 
upon  the  irregularity  of  his  campaign,  and  he  was  required 
to  apologize  for  fighting  without  a  commission,  yet  he  was 
at  the  same  time  caressed  and  praised  on  all  sides,  returned 
to  the  council,  and  dubbed  the  darling  of  Virginia's  hopes. 
The  assembly  then  proceeded  to  undo  all  the  evil  and  clean 
out  all  the  rottenness  that  had  disgraced  the  conduct  of 
their  predecessors.  Taxes,  church  tyranny,  restriction  of  the 
franchise,  illegal  assessments,  fees,  and  liquor-dealing  were 
done  away;  two  magistrates  were  proved  thieves  and  dis- 
franchised, and  trade  with  Indians  was  for  the  present 
stopped.  Bacon  received  a  commission;  but  Berkeley  re- 
fused to  sign  it ;  and  when  Bacon  appealed  to  the  country, 
and  returned  with  five  hundred  men  to  demand  his  rights, 
the  governor  was  beside  himself  with  fury. 

Private  letters  and  other  documents,  made  public  only 
long  after  this  date,  are  the  authority  for  what  occurred; 
but  though  certain  facts  are  given,  explanations  are  seldom 
available.  Berkeley  appears  to  have  been  holding  court 
when  Bacon  and  his  followers  appeared ;  it  is  said  that  he 
ran  out  and  confronted  them,  tore  his  shirt  open  and  de- 
clared that  sooner  should  they  shoot  him  than  he  would 
sign  the  commission  of  that  rebel ;  and  the  next  moment, 
changing  his  tactics,  he  offered  to  settle  the  issue  between 


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CATHOLIC,  PHILOSOPHER,  AND  REBEL        171 

Bacon  and  himself  by  a  duel.  All  this  does  not  sound  like 
the  acts  of  a  man  in  his  sober  senses.  It  seems  probable 
either  that  the  old  reprobate  was  intoxicated,  or  that  his 
mind  was  disordered  by  passion.  Bacon,  of  course,  declined 
to  match  his  youthful  vigor  against  his  decrepit  enemy,  as 
the  latter  must  have  known  he  would :  and  told  him  tem- 
perately that  the  commission  he  demanded  was  to  enable 
him  to  repel  the  savages  who  were  murdering  their  fellow 
colonists  unchecked.  The  governor,  after  some  further 
parley,  again  altered  his  behavior,  and  now  overpowered 
Bacon  with  maudlin  professions  of  esteem  for  his  patriotic 
energy ;  signed  his  commission,  and  sent  dispatches  to  Eng- 
land warmly  commending  him.  A  formal  amnesty,  obliter- 
ating all  past  acts  of  the  popular  champion  and  his  sup- 
porters which  could  be  construed  as  irregular,  was  drawn 
up  and  ratified  by  the  governor;  and  the  clouds  which  so 
long  had  lowered  over  Virginia  seemed  to  have  been  at  last 
in  the  deep  bosom  of  the  ocean  buried.  To  those  whom 
coincidences  interest  it  will  be  significant  that  this  victory 
for  the  people  was  won  on  the  4th  of  July,  1676. 

Operations  against  the  Indians  were  now  vigorously  re- 
sumed; but  Berkeley  had  not  yet  completed  the  catalogue 
of  his  iniquities.  Bacon's  back  was  scarcely  turned,  before 
he  violated  the  amnesty  which  he  had  just  ratified,  and  tried 
to  rouse  public  sentiment  against  the  liberator.  In  this, 
however,  he  signally  failed,  as  also  in  his  attempt  to  raise  a 
levy  to  arrest  him ;  and  frightened  at  the  revelation  of  his 
weakness,  he  fled  in  a  panic  to  Accomack,  a  peninsula  on 
the  eastern  side  of  Chesapeake  Bay.  "Word  of  his  proceed- 
ings had  in  the  meantime  been  conveyed  to  Bacon  by  Drum- 
mond,  former  governor  of  North  Carolina,  and  Lawrence. 
"Shall  he  who  commissioned  us  to  protect  the  country  from 
the  heathen,  betray  our  lives?"  said  Bacon.  "I  appeal  to 
the  king  and  parliament!"  He  established  himself  in  Wil- 
liamsburg;  at  Drummond's  suggestion  Berkeley's  flight  was 
taken  to  mean  his  withdrawal  from  the  governorship— 


I72  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

which,  at  any  rate,  had  now  passed  its  appointed  limit — 
and  a  summons  was  sent  out  to  the  gentlemen  of  Virginia 
to  meet  for  consultation  as  to  the  future  conduct  of  the 
colony.  It  was  at  this  juncture  that  the  envoys  returned 
from  England,  with  the  dark  news  that  Charles  had  refused 
all  relief. 

At  the  conference,  after  full  discussion,  it  was  voted  that 
the  colony  take  the  law  into  their  own  hands,  and  maintain 
themselves  not  only  against  the  Indians  and  Berkeley,  but  if 
need  were  against  England  herself.  "I  fear  England  no 
more  than  a  broken  straw,"  said  Sarah  Drummond,  snap- 
ping a  stick  in  her  hands  as  she  spoke :  the  women  of  Vir- 
ginia were  as  resolved  as  the  men.  Pending  these  contin- 
gencies, Bacon  with  his  little  army  again  set  out  in  pursuit 
of  the  Indians;  hearing  which,  Berkeley,  with  a  train  of 
mercenaries  which  he  had  contrived  to  collect,  crossed  from 
Accomack  and  landed  at  Jamestown,  where  he  repeated  his 
refrain  of  "rebels!"  He  promised  freedom  to  whatever 
slaves  of  the  colony  would  enlist  on  his  side,  and  fortified 
the  little  town.  The  crews  of  some  English  ships  in  the 
harbor  assisted  him ;  and  in  the  sequel  these  tars  were  the 
only  ones  of  his  rabble  that  stayed  by  him.  The  neighbor- 
hood was  alarmed,  fearing  any  kind  of  enormity,  and  mes- 
sengers rode  through  the  woods  post  haste,  and  swam  the 
rivers,  in  the  sultry  September  weather,  to  find  and  recall 
their  defenders,  and  summon  them  to  resist  a  worse  foe  than 
the  red  man.  Before  they  could  reach  the  young  leader,  the 
Indians  had  been  routed,  the  army  disbanded,  and  Bacon, 
with  a  handful  of  followers,  was  on  his  way  to  his  planta- 
tion. They  were  weary  with  the  fatigues  of  the  campaign, 
but  on  learning  that  the  prime  source  of  the  troubles  was 
intrenched  in  Jamestown,  and  that  "  man,  woman  and 
child  "  were  in  peril  of  slavery,  they  turned  their  horses' 
heads  southeastward,  and  galloped  to  the  rescue.  They 
gathered  recruits  on  their  way — no  one  could  resist  the  elo- 
quence of  Bacon — and  halting  at  such  of  the  plantations  as 


CATHOLIC,  PHILOSOPHER,  AND  REBEL        173 

were  owned  by  royalist  sympathizers,  they  compelled  their 
wives  to  mount  and  accompany  them  as  hostages.  This 
indicates  to  what  extremes  the  violence  of  Berkeley  was  ex- 
pected to  go.  It  was  evening  when  they  came  in  sight  of 
the  enemy.  But  the  moon  was  already  aloft,  and  as  the 
western  light  faded,  her  mellow  radiance  flooded  the  scene, 
giving  it  the  semblance  of  peace.  But  the  impatient  Virgin- 
ians wished  to  attack  at  once ;  and  a  lesser  man  than  Bacon 
might  have  yielded  to  their  urging.  Knowing,  however, 
that  the  country  was  with  him,  and  feeling  that  the  enemy 
must  sooner  or  later  succumb,  he  would  not  win  by  a  dash- 
ing, bloody  exploit  what  tune  was  sure  to  give  him.  He 
ordered  an  intrenchment  to  be  dug,  and  prepared  for  a 
siege.  But  there  was  no  lust  for  battle  in  the  disorderly 
and  incoherent  force  which  the  frantic  appeals  and  reck- 
less promises  of  the  governor  had  assembled;  they  were 
beaten  already,  and  could  not  be  induced  to  make  a  sortie. 
Desertions  began,  and  all  the  objurgations,  supplications 
and  melodramatic  extravaganzas  of  Berkeley  were  impo- 
tent to  stop  them ;  the  more  shrilly  he  shrieked,  the  faster 
did  his  sorry  aggregation  melt  away.  When  it  became  evi- 
dent that  there  would  soon  be  none  left  save  himself  and 
the  sailors,  he  ceased  his  blustering,  and  scuttled  off  toward 
Gloucester  and  the  Rappahannock. 

Bacon,  Drummond,  Lawrence  and  their  men  occupied  the 
abandoned  town,  in  which  some  of  them  owned  houses,  and 
burned  it  to  the  ground.  The  act  was  deliberate ;  the  town 
records  were  first  removed ;  and  the  men  who  had  most  to 
lose  by  the  conflagration  were  the  first  to  set  the  torch. 
Jamestown  at  that  time  contained  hardly  twenty  buildings 
all  told;  but  it  was  the  first  settlement  of  the  Dominion, 
and  sentiment  would  fain  have  preserved  it.  A  mossy  ruin, 
draped  in  vines,  is  all  that  remains  of  it  now.  The  ascer- 
tainable  causes  of  its  destruction  seem  inadequate;  yet  the 
circumstances  show  that  it  could  not  have  been  done  in  mere 
wantonness.  Civilized  warfare  permits  the  destruction  of 


174  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

the  enemy's  property ;  but  the  enemy  had  retreated,  and  the 
expectation  was  that  he  would  never  return.  That  Bacon 
had  reasons,  his  previous  record  justifies  us  in  believing; 
but  what  they  were  is  matter  of  conjecture.  As  it  is,  the 
burning  of  Jamestown  is  the  only  passage  in  his  brief  and 
gallant  career  which  can  be  construed  as  a  blemish  upon 
it.  Unfortunately,  it  was,  also,  all  but  the  final  one. 

He  pursued  Berkeley,  and  the  army  of  the  latter,  in- 
stead of  fighting,  marched  over  to  him  with  a  unanimity 
which  left  the  governor  almost  without  a  companion  hi 
his  chagrin.  The  whole  of  Virginia  was  now  in  Bacon's 
hand;  he  had  no  foes;  he  was  called  Deliverer;  he  had 
never  met  reverse;  he  was  a  man  of  intellect,  judgment 
and  honor,  and  he  was  in  the  prime  of  his  youth ;  in  such 
a  country,  beloved,  and  supported  by  such  a  people,  what 
might  he  not  have  hoped  to  achieve  ?  Men  like  him  are 
rare;  in  a  country  just  emerging  into  political  conscious- 
ness, he  was  doubly  precious.  There  was  no  one  to  take 
his  place;  the  return  of  Berkeley  meant  all  that  was  im- 
aginable of  evil;  and  yet  Bacon  was  to  die,  and  Berkeley 
was  to  return. 

In  the  trenches  before  Jamestown  Bacon  had  contracted 
the  seeds  of  a  fever  which  now,  in  the  hour  of  his  triumph, 
overcame  him.  After  a  short  struggle  he  succumbed ;  and 
his  men,  fearing,  apparently,  that  the  ghoulish  revenge  of 
the  old  governor  might  subject  his  remains  to  insult,  sunk 
his  body  in  the  river ;  and  none  know  where  lie  the  bones  of 
the  first  American  patriot  who  died  in  arms  against  oppres- 
sion. His  worth  is  proved  by  the  confusion  and  disorganiza- 
tion which  ensued  upon  his  death.  Cheeseman,  Hansford, 
Wilford  and  Drummond  could  not  make  head  against  dis- 
aster. On  the  governor's  side,  Robert  Beverly  developed 
.the  qualities  of  a  leader,  and  a  series  of  small  engagements 
left  the  patriots  at  his  mercy.  Berkeley  was  re-established 
in  his  place;  and  then  began  the  season  of  his  revenge. 

His  victims  were  the  gentlemen  of  Virginia :  the  flower 


CATHOLIC,  PHILOSOPHER,  AND  REBEL        175 

of  the  province.  He  had  no  mercy ;  his  sole  thought  was 
to  add  insult  to  the  bitterness  of  death.  He  would  not  spare 
then*  lives ;  he  would  not  shoot  them ;  they  must  perish  on 
the  gallows,  not  as  soldiers,  but  as  rebels.  "When  a  young 
wife  pleaded  for  her  gallant  husband,  declaring  that  it 
was  she  who  persuaded  him  to  join  the  patriotic  move- 
ment, Berkeley  denied  her  prayer  with  coarse  brutality. 
When  Drummond  was  brought  before  him,  he  assured  him 
of  his  pleasure  in  their  meeting:  "You  shall  be  hanged 
in  half  an  hour."  One  can  see  that  mean,  flushed  counte- 
nance, ravaged  by  time  and  intemperance,  with  bloodshot 
eyes,  gloating  over  the  despair  of  his  foes,  and  searching  for 
means  to  torture  their  minds  while  destroying  their  bodies. 
Trial  by  jury  was  not  quick  or  sure  enough  for  Berkeley; 
he  condemned  them  by  court-martial,  and  the  noose  was 
round  their  necks  at  once.  Their  families  were  stripped  of 
their  property  and  sent  adrift  to  subsist  on  charity.  In  his 
bloodthirstiness,  he  never  forgot  his  pecuniary  advantage, 
and  his  thievish  fingers  grasped  all  the  valuables  that  his 
murderous  instincts  brought  within  his  power.  But  the 
spectacle  is  too  revolting  for  contemplation. 

"He  would  have  hanged  half  the  country  if  we  had  let 
him  alone,"  was  the  remark  of  a  member  of  the  assem- 
bly. It  was  voted  that  the  execution  should  cease;  more 
than  two-score  men  had  already  been  strangled  for  defend- 
ing their  homes  and  resisting  oppression.  Even  Charles  in 
London  was  annoyed  when  he  heard  of  the  wasteful  ma- 
lignity of  "the  old  fool,"  and  sent  word  of  his  disapproval 
and  displeasure.  A  successor  was  sent  over  to  supersede 
him ;  but  he  at  first  refused  to  go  at  the  king's  command, 
though  he  had  ever  used  the  king's  name  as  the  warrant 
for  his  crimes.  He  had  sold  powder  and  shot  to  the 
Indians  to  kill  his  own  people  with;  he  had  appropriated 
the  substance  of  widows  and  orphans  whom  he  had  made 
such;  he  had  punished  by  public  whipping  all  who  were 
reported  to  have  spoken  against  him;  he  forbade  the 


176  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

printing-press;  but  all  had  been  done  "for  the  King." 
And  now  he  resisted  the  authority  of  the  king  himself.  But 
Charles,  for  once,  was  determined,  and  Berkeley,  under  the 
disgrace  of  severe  reprimand,  was  forced  to  go.  The  joy 
bells  clashed  out  the  people's  delight  as  the  ship  which 
carried  him  dropped  down  the  harbor,  and  the  firing  of  guns 
was  like  an  anticipation  of  our  celebration  of  Independence 
Day.  He  stood  on  the  poop,  in  the  beauty  of  the  morning, 
shaking  out  curses  from  his  trembling  hands,  in  helpless 
hatred  of  the  fair  land  and  gallant  people  that  he  had  done 
his  utmost  to  make  miserable.  In  England,  the  king  would 
have  none  of  him,  and  he  met  with  nothing  but  rebuffs  and 
condemnation  on  all  sides.  The  power  which  he  had  mis- 
used was  forever  gone;  he  was  old,  and  shattered  in  con- 
stitution; he  was  disgraced,  flouted,  friendless  and  alone. 
He  died  soon  after  his  arrival,  of  mortification ;  he  had  lived 
only  to  do  evil ;  and  to  withhold  him  from  it  was  to  take 
his  life  away. 

It  is  not  the  function  of  the  historian  to  condemn. 
Berkeley  was  by  birth  and  training  an  aristocrat  and  a 
cavalier,  and  he  was  a  creature  of  his  age  and  station.  He 
had  been  taught  to  believe  that  the  patrician  is  of  another 
flesh  and  blood  than  the  plebeian;  that  authority  can  be 
enforced  only  by  tyranny;  that  the  only  right  is  that  of 
birth,  and  of  the  strongest.  He  was  early  placed  in  a  posi- 
tion where  every  personal  indulgence  was  made  easy  to 
him,  where  there  was  none  to  call  in  question  his  authority, 
and  where  there  was  temptation  to  assert  authority  by  op- 
pression, and  by  arrogating  absolute  license  to  act  as  the 
whim  prompted,  and  to  lay  hands  on  whatever  he  coveted. 
Add  to  these  conditions  a  nature  congenitally  without  gener- 
ous instincts,  a  narrow  brain,  and  a  sensual  temperament, 
and  we  have  gone  far  to  account  for  the  phenomenon  which 
Berkeley  finally,  in  his  approaching  senility,  presented.  He 
was  the  type  of  the  worst  traits  that  caused  England  ulti- 
mately to  forfeit  America;  the  concentration  of  whatever  is 


CATHOLIC,  PHILOSOPHER,  AND  REBEL        177 

opposite  to  popular  liberties.  His  deeds  must  be  execrated ; 
but  we  cannot  put  him  beyond  the  pale  of  human  nature, 
or  deny  that  under  different  circumstances  he  would  have 
been  a  better  man.  We  may  admit,  too,  that,  in  the  wisdom 
of  Providence,  he  was  placed  where,  by  doing  so  much  mis- 
chief, he  was  involuntarily  the  cause  of  more  good  than  he 
could  ever  willingly  have  accomplished.  He  taught  the 
people  how  to  hate  despotism,  and  how  to  struggle  against 
it.  He  wrought  a  mutual  understanding  and  sympathy  be- 
tween the  upper  and  lower  orders ;  he  led  them  to  define  to 
their  own  minds  what  things  are  indispensable  to  the  exist- 
ence of  true  democracy.  These  are  some  of  the  uses  which 
he,  and  such  as  he,  in  their  own  despite  subserved.  He 
and  the  young  Bacon  were  mortal  foes;  but  he,  by  opposing 
Bacon,  and  murdering  his  friends,  aided  the  cause  for  which 
they  laid  down  their  lives. 

After  his  departure  there  ensued  a  period  of  ten  years 
or  more,  during  which  the  pressure  upon  Virginia  seemed 
rather  to  grow  heavier  than  to  lighten.  The  acts  of 
Bacon's  assembly  were  repealed;  all  the  former  abuses 
were  restored;  the  public  purse  was  shamelessly  robbed; 
the  suffrage  was  restricted;  the  church  was  restored  to 
power.  In  1677  the  Dominion  became  the  property  of  one 
Culpepper,  who  had  the  title  of  governor  for  life;  and  the 
restraints,  such  as  they  were,  of  its  existence  as  a  royal 
colony  were  removed.  But  Culpepper's  course  was  so  cor- 
rupt as  to  necessitate  his  removal,  and  in  1684  the  king 
resumed  his  sway.  James  II.  reached  the  English  throne 
the  following  year,  and  his  persecutions  of  his  enemies  in 
England  gave  good  citizens  to  America.  But  the  Virgin- 
ians, who  could  be  wronged  and  oppressed,  but  never 
crushed,  protested  against  the  arbitrary  use  of  the  king's 
prerogative;  they  were  punished  for  their  temerity,  but 
rose  more  determined  from  the  struggle.  No  man  could 
be  sent  to  Virginia  who  was  strong  enough  to  destroy  its 
resolve  for  liberty. 


178  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

And  now  the  English  Revolution  was  at  hand;  and  we 
are  to  inquire  what  influence  the  new  dispensation  was  to 
have  on  the  awakening  national  spirit  of  the  American 
colonies. 


CHAPTER    SEVENTH 

QUAKER,    YANKEE,   AND  KING 

HE  American  principle,  simple  in  that  its  per- 
fection is  human  liberty,  is  of  complex  make. 
It  is  the  sum  of  the  ways  in  which  a  man 
may  legitimately  be  free.  But  neither  Pil- 
grims, Puritans,  New  Amsterdamers,  Virgin- 
ians, Carolinians  nor  Marylanders  were  free 
in  all  ways.  Even  the  Providence  people  had 
their  limitations.  It  is  not  meant,  merely,  that  the  old 
world  still  kept  a  grip  on  them :  their  several  systems  were 
intrinsically  incomplete.  Some  of  them  put  religious  liberty 
in  the  first  place;  others,  political;  but  each  had  its  incon- 
sistency, or  its  shortcoming.  None  had  gone  quite  to  the 
root  of  the  matter.  "What  was  that  root? — or,  let  us  say, 
the  mother  lode,  of  which  these  were  efferent  veins? 

The  Pilgrims  and  Puritans,  heretics  in  Episcopalian  Eng- 
land, had  escaped  from  their  persecution,  but  had  banished 
heretics  in  their  turn.  Tranquil  Lord  Baltimore  having  laid 
the  burden  of  his  doubts  at  the  foot  of  God's  vicegerent  on 
earth,  had  sought  no  further,  and  was  indifferent  as  to 
what  other  poor  mortals  might  choose  to  think  they 
thought  about  the  unknown  things.  Roger  Williams' 
charity,  based  on  the  dogma  of  free  conscience,  drew  the 
line  only  at  atheists.  The  other  colonists,  since  their  sali- 
ent contention  was  on  the  lower  ground  of  civil  emancipa- 
tion and  self -direction,  are  not  presently  considered. 


QUAKER,  YANKEE,  AND  KING  179 

But,  to  the  assembly  of  religious  radicals,  there  enters 
a  plain  Man  in  Leather  Breeches,  and  sees  fetters  on  the 
limbs  of  all  of  them.  "Does  thee  call  it  freedom,  Friend 
"Winthrop,"  says  he,  "to  fear  contact  with  such  as  believe 
otherwise  than  thee  does?  Can  truth  fear  aught?  And 
fear,  is  it  not  bondage?  As  for  thee,  George  Calvert,  thee 
has  delivered  up  thine  immortal  soul  into  the  keeping  of  a 
man  no  different  from  what  thee  thyself  is,  so  to  escape  the 
anxious  seat ;  but  the  dead  also  are  free  of  anxiety,  and  thy 
bondage  is  most  like  unto  death.  Thee  calls  thy  colony 
folk  free,  because  thee  lets  them  believe  what. they  list;  but 
they  do  but  follow  what  their  fathers  taught  them,  who  got 
it  from  theirs ;  which  is  to  be  in  bondage  to  the  past.  And 
here  is  friend  Roger,  who  makes  private  conscience  free; 
but  what  is  private  conscience  but  the  private  reasonings 
whereby  a  man  convinceth  himself?  and  how  shall  he  call 
his  conviction  the  truth,  since  all  truth  is  one,  but  the  testi- 
mony of  no  man's  private  conscience  is  the  same  as  an- 
other's? Nay,  how  does  thee  know  that  the  atheist,  whom 
thee  excludes,  is  further  from  the  truth  than  thee  thyself 
is?  Truly,  I  hear  the  clanking  of  the  chains  on  ye  all ;  but 
if  ye  will  accept  the  Inner  Light,  then  indeed  shall  ye 
know  what  freedom  is!" 

This  Man  in  Leather  Breeches,  who  also  wears  his  hat 
in  the  king's  presence,  is  otherwise  known  as  George  Fox, 
the  Leicestershire  weaver's  son,  the  Quaker.  In  his  youth 
he  was  much  troubled  in  spirit  concerning  mankind,  their 
nature  and  destiny,  and  the  purpose  of  God  concerning 
them.  He  wandered  hi  lonely  places,  and  fasted,  and  was 
afflicted;  he  sought  help  and  light  from  all,  but  there  was 
none  could  enlighten  him.  But  at  last  light  came  to  him, 
even  out  of  the  bosom  of  his  own  darkness;  and  he  saw 
that  human  learning  is  but  vanity,  since  within  a  man's 
self,  will  he  but  look  for  it,  abides  a  great  Inner  Light, 
which  changeth  not,  and  is  the  same  in  all;  being,  indeed, 
the  presence  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  His  creature,  a  con- 


i8o  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

etant  guide  and  revelation,  withheld  from  none,  uniting  and 
equalizing  all;  for  what,  in  comparison  with  God,  are  the 
distinctions  of  rank  and  wealth,  or  of  learning? — Seek  ye 
first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness,  and  these 
things  shall  be  added  unto  you.  In  the  lowest  of  men,  not 
less  than  in  such  as  are  called  greatest,  burns  this  lamp  of 
Divine  Truth,  and  it  shall  shine  for  the  hind  as  brightly  aa 
for  the  prince.  In  its  rays,  the  trappings  of  royalty  are  rags, 
jewels  are  dust  and  ashes,  the  lore  of  science,  folly;  the  dis- 
putes of  philosophers,  the  crackling  of  thorns  under  the  pot. 
By  the  Inner  Light  alone  can  men  be  free  and  equal,  true 
sons  of  God,  heirs  of  a  liberty  which  can  never  be  taken 
away,  since  bars  confine  not  the  spirit,  nor  do  tortures  or 
death  of  the  body  afflict  it.  So  said  George  Fox  and  his 
followers;  and  their  lives  bore  witness  to  their  words. 

The  Society  of  Friends  took  its  rise  not  from  a  discovery 
— for  Fox  himself  held  the  Demon  of  Socrates,  and  similar 
traditional  phenomena,  to  be  identical  with  the  Inner  Light, 
or  voice  of  the  Spirit— but  rather  in  the  recognition  of  the 
universality  of  something  which  had  heretofore  been  re- 
garded as  exceptional  and  extraordinary.  In  the  Seven- 
teenth Century  there  was  a  general  revolt  of  the  oppressed 
against  oppression,  declaring  itself  in  all  phases  of  the  outer 
and  inner  life ;  of  these,  there  must  needs  be  one  interior  to 
all  the  rest,  and  Quakerism  seems  to  have  been  it.  It  was 
a  revolution  within  revolutions;  it  saw  in  the  man's  own 
self  the  only  tyrant  who  could  really  enslave  him ;  and  by 
bringing  him  into  the  direct  presence  of  God,  it  showed 
him  the  way  to  the  only  real  emancipation.  Historically,  it 
was  the  vital  element  in  all  other  emancipating  movements; 
it  was  their  logical  antecedent :  the  hidden  spring  feeding  all 
their  rivers  with  the  water  of  life.  It  enables  us  to  analyze 
them  and  gauge  their  values ;  it  is  their  measure  and  plum- 
met. And  this,  not  because  it  is  the  final  or  the  highest 
word  justifying  the  ways  of  God  to  man — for  it  has  nofc 
proved  to  be  so:  but  because  it  indicated,  once  for  all,  in 


QUAKER,  YANKEE,  AND  KING  181 

what  direction  the  real  solution  of  the  riddle  of  man  was 
to  be  sought :  a  riddle  never  to  be  fully  solved,  but  forever 
approximately  guessed.  Quakerism  has  not  maintained  its 
relative  position  in  religious  thought;  but  it  was  the  finest 
perception  of  its  day,  and  in  the  turmoil  of  the  time  it  ful- 
filled its  purpose.  Probably  its  best  effect  was  the  develop- 
ment it  gave  to  the  humbler  element  of  society — to  the 
yeomen  and  laborers;  affording  them  the  needed  justifica- 
tion for  the  various  demands  for  recognition  that  they  were 
urging.  Puritanism  banished  Quakers,  and.  even  hanged 
them;  but  the  Quaker  was  the  Puritan's  spiritual  father, 
although  he  knew  it  not.  And  therefore  the  Quaker,  who 
was  among  the  last  to  appear  in  America  as  a  settler  in 
virgin  soil,  had  a  right  thereto  prior  to  any  one  of  the 
others.  There  must  be  a  soul  before  there  can  be  a  body. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  soul  without  a  body  is  not  adapted 
to  life  in  this  world;  and  an  America  peopled  exclusively  by 
Quakers  would  have  been  unsatisfactory.  It  is  a  prevailing 
tendency  of  man,  having  hit  upon  a  truth,  to  begin  to  theo- 
rize upon  it,  and,  as  the  phrase  is,  run  it  into  the  ground. 
Quakers  would  not  fight,  would  not  take  an  oath,  would 
not  baptize,  or  wear  mourning,  or  flatter  the  senses  with 
pictures  and  statues.  A  Quaker  would  resist  evil  and  vio- 
lence only  by  enlightening  them.  He  would  not  be  taxed 
for  measures  or  objects  which  he  did  not  approve.  He 
could  see  but  one  way  of  reforming  the  world,  and 
thought  that  God  was  equally  circumscribed  in  His 
methods.  But  though  the  leaven  may  make  bread  whole- 
some, we  cannot  subsist  on  leaven  alone.  The  essence  of 
Americanism  may  be  in  a  Quaker,  but  he  is  far  from  being 
a  complete  American,  and  therefore  he  was  fain  to  take  his 
place  only  as  a  noble  ingredient  in  that  wonderful  mixture. 
By  degrees,  the  singularities  which  distinguished  him  were 
softened;  his  thee  and  thy  yielded  to  the  common  forms  of 
speech ;  his  drab  suit  altered  its  cut  and  hue ;  his  hat  came 
off  occasionally;  his  women  abated  the  rigor  of  their  poke 


182  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

bonnets;  he  was  able  to  say  to  the  enemy  of  his  country, 
"Friend,  thee  is  standing  just  where  I  am  going  to  shoot." 
The  disintegration  of  his  individuality  set  free  the  good  that 
was  in  him  to  permeate  surrounding  society;  his  fellow 
flowers  in  the  garden  were  more  beautiful  and  fragrant 
for  his  sake. 

When  persecution  of  Quakers  was  at  its  worst,  they 
became  almost  dehumanized,  attaching  more  value  to  their 
willingness  to  endure  ill-usage  than  to  the  spiritual  principle 
for  avouching  which  they  were  ill-used.  Many  persons — 
such  is  the  oddity  of  human  nature — were  drawn  to  the 
sect  for  love  of  the  persecution ;  and  gave  way  to  extrava- 
gances such  as  Fox  would  have  been  the  first  to  denounce. 
But  when  toleration  began,  these  excesses  ceased,  and  they 
bethought  themselves  to  make  a  home  in  the  wilderness  of 
their  own.  There  was  room  enough.  George  Fox  returned 
from  his  pilgrimage  to  the  Atlantic  colonies  in  1674,  with 
good  accounts  of  the  resources  of  the  new  country ;  and  the 
owner  of  New  Jersey  sold  half  of  it  to  John  Fenwick  for  a 
thousand  pounds;  and  the  next  year  the  latter  went  there 
with  many  Friends,  and  picked  out  a  pleasant  spot  on  the 
east  bank  of  the  Delaware  for  the  first  settlement,  to  which 
he  gave  the  name  of  Salem.  It  was  at  this  juncture  that 
"William  Penn  became,  with  two  others,  assigns  of  the  pro- 
prietor of  the  colony,  and  thus  took  the  first  step  toward 
assuming  full  responsibility  for  it.  He  did  not,  however, 
personally  visit  America  till  seven  years  later. 

Penn  was  the  son  of  an  English  admiral :  not  the  kind  of 
timber,  therefore,  out  of  which  one  would  have  supposed 
a  great  apostle  of  non-resistance  could  be  made.  He  was 
brought  up  to  the  use  of  ample  wealth,  and  his  training 
and  education  were  aristocratic.  After  leaving  Oxford,  he 
made  the  grand  tour,  and  came  home  a  finished  young  man 
of  the  world,  with  the  pleasures  and  rewards  of  life  before 
him.  He  had  good  brains  and  solid  qualities,  and  the  old 
admiral  had  high  hopes  of  him.  No  doubt  he  would  have 


QUAKER,  YANKEE,  AND  KING  183 

made  a  very  good  figure  in  the  English  world  of  fashion; 
but  destiny  had  another  career  marked  out  for  him. 

The  plain  Man  with  the  Leather  Breeches  got  hold  of 
him ;  and  all  the  objurgations,  threats,  and  even  the  act  of 
disinheritance  of  the  admiral  were  powerless  to  extricate 
him  from  that  grasp.  Penn  had  found  something  which 
seemed  to  him  more  precious  than  rubies,  and  he  was  quite 
as  resolute  as  the  old  hero  of  the  Navy.  Penn  could  en- 
dure the  beating  and  the  being  turned  into  the  streets,  but 
he  could  not  stop  his  ears  and  eyes  to  the  voice  and  light 
of  God  in  his  soul.  He  did  not  care  to  conquer  another 
Jamaica,  but  he  passionately  desired  to  minister  to  the  spir- 
itual good  of  his  fellow  creatures.  He  was  of  a  sociable 
and  cheerful  disposition;  he  could  disarm  his  adversary  in 
a  duel;  he  could  take  charge  of  the  family  estates,  and 
qualify  himself  for  the  law;  the  king  was  ready  to  smile 
upon  him;  but  all  worldly  ambitions  died  away  in  him 
when  he  heard  Thomas  Lee  testify  of  the  faith  that  over- 
comes the  world.  Nothing  less  than  that  would  satisfy 
Penn.  In  1666,  when  he  was  two  and  twenty,  he  made 
acquaintance  with  the  inside  of  a  jail  on  account  of  his  con- 
scientious perversities;  but  the  only  effect  of  the  experience 
was  to  make  him  perceive  that  he  had  thereby  become  "his 
own  freeman."  When  he  got  out,  his  friends  cut  him  and 
society  made  game  of  him;  finally,  he  was  lodged  in  the 
Tower,  which,  he  informed  Charles  II.,  seemed  to  him  "the 
worst  argument  in  the  world."  They  let  him  out  in  less 
than  a  year,  but  in  less  than  a  year  more  he  was  again 
arrested  and  put  on  trial.  The  jury,  after  having  been 
starved  for  two  days  and  heartily  cursed  by  the  judge, 
brought  him  in  not  guilty;  upon  which  the  judge,  with  a 
fine  sense  of  humor,  fined  them  all  heavily  and  sent  him 
back  to  prison.  But  this  was  too  much  for  the  admiral, 
who  paid  his  fines  and  got  him  out ;  and,  being  then  on  his 
death-bed,  surrendered  at  discretion,  restoring  to  him  the 
inheritance,  and  observing,  not  without  a  pensive  satisfac- 


184  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

tion,  that  he  and  his  friends  would  end  by  "making  an  end 
of  the  priests." 

A  six  months'  term  in  Newgate  was  still  in  store  for 
Penn;  but  after  that  they  gave  up  this  method  of  reform- 
ing him.  He  spent  the  next  years  in  exhorting  Parliament 
and  reproving  princes  all  over  Europe;  and  in  the  midst 
of  these  labors  he  met  one  of  the  best  and  most  beautiful 
women  in  England;  she  had  suitors  by  the  score,  but  she 
loved  "William  Penn,  and  they  were  married.  She  was  the 
wife  of  his  mind  and  soul  as  well  as  of  his  bed  and  board. 
He  was  now  doubly  fortified  against  the  world,  and  doubly 
bound  to  his  career  of  human  benevolence.  His  studies  and 
meditations  had  made  him  a  profound  philosopher  and  an 
able  statesman ;  and  in  all  ways  he  was  prepared  to  begin 
the  great  work  of  his  life. 

Meanwhile,  the  Quakers  in  the  new  world  were  building 
up  the  framework  of  their  state.  They  decreed  to  put  the 
power  in  the  people,  and  all  the  articles  of  their  constitution 
embody  the  utmost  degree  of  freedom,  with  constant  oppor- 
tunities for  the  electors  to  revise  or  renew  their  judgments. 
"When  the  agent  of  the  Duke  of  York  levied  customs  on 
ships  going  to  New  Jersey,  the  act  drew  from  the  colonists 
a  remarkable  protest,  which  was  supported  by  the  courts. 
They  had  planted  in  the  wilderness,  they  said,  in  order, 
among  other  things,  to  escape  arbitrary  taxation;  if  they 
could  not  make  their  own  laws  in  a  land  which  they  had 
bought,  not  from  the  Duke,  but  from  the  natives,  they  had 
lost  instead  of  gaining  liberty  by  leaving  England.  Taxes 
levied  upon  planting  left  them  nothing  to  call  their  own,  and 
foreshadowed  a  despotic  government  in  England,  when  the 
Duke  should  come  to  the  throne.  The  future  James  II. 
gave  up  his  claim,  and  in  1680  signed  an  indenture  to  that 
effect.  Later,  at  the  advice  of  Penn,  they  so  amended 
their  constitution  as  to  give  them  power  to  elect  their  own 
governor,  A  charter  was  drawn  up  by  Penn  and  con- 


QUAKER,  YANKEE,  AND  KING  185 

firmed  in  1681,  and  he  became  proprietor.  No  man  ever 
assumed  such  a  trust  with  less  of  personal  ambition  or 
desire  for  gain  than  he.  "You  shall  be  governed  by  laws 
of  your  own  making,"  said  he;  "I  shall  not  usurp  the  right 
of  any,  or  oppress  his  person."  He  had  already  made  in- 
roads on  his  estate  by  fighting  the  cause  of  his  brethren  in 
England  in  the  courts;  but  when  a  speculator  offered  him 
six  thousand  pounds  down  and  an  annual  income  for  the 
monopoly  of  Indian  trade,  he  declined  it;  the  trade  be- 
longed to  his  people.  He  was  ardently  desirous  to  benefit 
his  colony  by  putting  in  operation  among  them  the  schemes 
which  his  wisdom  had  evolved ;  but  he  would  not  override 
theu*  own  wishes;  they  should  be  secured  even  from  his 
power  to  do  them  good;  for,  as  liberty  without  obedience 
is  confusion,  so  is  obedience  without  liberty  slavery.  In- 
stead therefore  of  imposing  his  designs  upon  them,  he  sub- 
mitted them  for  their  free  consideration.  Pennsylvania  now 
occupied  its  present  boundaries,  with  the  addition  of  Dela- 
ware; and  western  New  Jersey  ceased  to  be  the  nominal 
home  of  the  Friends  in  America.  In  1682,  Perm  embarked 
for  the  Delaware.  He  had  founded  a  free  colony  for  all 
mankind,  believing  that  God  is  in  every  conscience;  and 
he  was  now  going  to  witness  and  superintend  the  working 
of  his  "holy  experiment." 

On  October  29th  he  was  received  at  Newcastle  by  a 
crowd  of  mixed  nationality,  and  the  Duke  of  York's  agent 
formally  delivered  up  the  province  to  him.  The  journey 
up  the  Delaware  was  continued  in  an  open  boat,  and  the 
site  of  Philadelphia  was  reached  in  the  first  week  of  No- 
vember. There  a  meeting  of  delegates  from  the  inhabi- 
tants was  held  and  the  rules  which  were  to  govern  them 
were  reviewed  and  ratified.  Among  these  it  was  stipulated 
that  every  Christian  sect  was  eligible  to  office,  that  murder 
only  was  a  capital  crime,  that  marriage  was  a  civil  con- 
tract, that  convict  prisons  should  be  workhouses,  that  all 
who  paid  duties  should  be  electors,  and  that  there  should  be 


186 


no  poor  rates  or  tithes.  Then  Perm  proceeded  to  lay  out 
the  city  of  Philadelphia,  where  they  "might  improve  an 
innocent  course  of  life  on  a  virgin  Elysian  shore."  It  was 
here  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  signed 
ninety-three  years  afterward. 

In  March,  before  the  leaves  had  budded  on  the  tall  trees 
whose  colonnades  were  as  yet  the  only  habitation  for  the 
emigrants,  the  latter  set  to  work  to  settle  their  constitution. 
"Amend,  alter  or  add  as  you  please,"  was  the  recommenda- 
tion with  which  Perm  submitted  it  to  them — the  work  of  his 
ripest  wisdom  and  loving  good-will.  To  the  governor  and 
council  it  assigned  the  suggestion  of  all  laws ;  these  sugges- 
tions were  then  to  be  submitted  by  the  assembly  to  the  body 
of  the  people,  who  thus  became  the  direct  law-makers.  To 
Penn  was  given  the  power  to  negative  the  doings  of  the 
council,  he  being  responsible  for  all  legislation ;  but  he  could 
originate  and  enforce  nothing.  He  would  accept  no  reve- 
nues; and,  indeed,  except  in  the  way  of  helpfulness  and 
counsel,  never  in  any  way  imposed  himself  upon  his  people. 
He  was  the  proprietor;  but.  in  all  practical  respects,  Penn- 
sylvania was  a  representative  democracy.  That  they  should 
be  free  and  happy  was  his  sole  desire. 

In  its  relations  with  the  Indians,  the  colony  was  singu- 
larly fortunate;  the  doctrine  of  non-resistance  succeeded 
best  where  least  might  have  been  expected  from  it.  All 
lands  were  purchased,  conferences  being  held  and  deeds 
signed;  and  the  red  men  were  given  thoroughly  to  under- 
stand that  nothing  but  mutual  good  was  intended.  They 
took  to  the  new  idea  kindly;  the  law  of  retaliation  had 
been  the  principle  of  their  lives  hitherto;  but  if  a  man  did 
good  to  them,  and  dealt  honestly  by  them,  should  not  they 
retaliate  by  manifesting  the  same  integrity  and  good- will? 
At  one  time  it  was  reported  that  a  band  of  Indians  had 
assembled  on  the  border  with  the  design  of  avenging  some 
grievance  with  a  massacre.  Six  .unarmed  Quakers  started 
at  once  for  the  scene  of  trouble,  and  the  Indians  subsided. 


QUAKER,  YANKEE,  AND  KING  187 

It  has  long  been  admitted  that  it  takes  two  sides  to  make  a 
fight ;  but  this  was  an  indication  that  it  needs  resistance  to 
make  a  massacre.  Perm,  who  was  fond  of  visiting  the 
Indians  in  their  wigwams,  and  sharing  their  hospitality, 
formed  an  excellent  opinion  of  them.  He  discoursed  to 
them  of  their  rights  as  men,  and  of  their  privileges  as 
immortal  souls;  and  they  conceded  to  him  his  claim  to 
peaceful  possession  of  his  province.  Not  less  remarkable 
was  the  fate  of  witchcraft  in  Pennsylvania.  The  Swedes 
and  Finns  believed  in  witches,  upon  the  authority  of  their 
native  traditions ;  and  a  woman  of  their  race  having  acted 
in  a  violent  and  unaccountable  manner,  they  put  her  on  her 
trial  for  witchcraft.  Both  Swedes  and  Quakers  composed 
the  jury;  there  were  no  hysterics;  the  matter  was  dispas- 
sionately canvassed;  impressions  and  prejudices  were  not 
accepted  as  evidence;  and  in  the  end  the  verdict  was  that 
though  she  was  guilty  of  being  called  a  witch,  a  witch  she 
nevertheless  was  not.  The  distinction  was  so  well  taken 
that  no  more  witch  trials  or  panics  occurred.  This  was  in 
1684,  eight  years  before  the  disasters  in  New  England.  But 
newspapers  did  not  exist  in  those  days,  and  public  opinion 
was  undeveloped. 

The  colony,  receiving  a  world-wide  advertisement  by  dint 
of  the  excellence  of  its  institutions  and  the  singularity  of  its 
principles,  became  a  magnet  to  draw  to  itself  the  "good  and 
oppressed"  of  all  Europe.  There  were  a  good  many  of 
them;  and  within  a  couple  of  years  from  the  time  when 
Philadelphia  meant  blaze-marks  on  trees  and  three  or  four 
cottages,  it  had  grown  to  be  a  real  town  of  six  hundred 
houses.  The  colony  altogether  mustered  eight  thousand 
people.  "With  justifiable  confidence,  therefore,  that  all  was 
well,  and  would  stay  so,  Penn,  with  many  loving  words 
for  his  people,  returned  to  England  to  continue  the  defense 
of  the  afflicted  there.  A  dispute  as  to  the  right  boundaries 
of  Delaware  and  Maryland  was  also  to  be  determined ;  but 
it  proved  to  be  a  lingering  negotiation,  chiefly  noteworthy 


i88  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

on  account  of  its  leading  to  the  fixing  of  the  line  by  Charles 
Mason  and  Jeremiah  Dixon,  which  afterward  became  the 
recognized  boundary  between  the  States  where  slaves  might 
be  owned  and  those  where  they  might  not.  The  line  was 
surveyed,  finally,  in  1767. 

Penn  being  gone,  the  people  applied  themselves  to  experi- 
menting with  their  constitution.  A  constitution  which  is 
devised  to  secure  liberty  to  the  subject,  including  liberty  to 
modify  or  change  it,  is  as  nearly  unchangeable  as  any  mor- 
tal structure  can  be.  The  inhabitants  of  Pennsylvania  had 
never  known  before  what  it  was  to  be  free,  and  they  natu- 
rally wished  to  test  the  new  gift  or  quality  in  every  way 
open  to  them.  Not  having  the  trained  brain  and  unselfish 
wisdom  that  belonged  to  Penn,  of  which  the  constitution 
was  the  offspring,  they  thought  that  they  could  improve  its 
provisions.  But  the  more  earnestly  they  labored  to  this  end, 
the  more  surely  were  they  brought  to  the  confession  that  he 
had  known  how  to  make  them  free  better  than  they  them- 
selves did.  When  they  resolved  against  taxes,  they  found 
themselves  without  revenue ;  when  they  refused  to  discipline 
a  debtor,  they  found  that  credit  was  no  longer  to  be  had. 
They  fussed  and  fretted  to  their  hearts'  content,  and  no 
great  harm  came  of  it,  because  the  constitution  was  always 
awaiting  them  with  forgiveness  when  they  had  tired  them- 
selves with  abusing  it.  The  only  important  matter  that 
came  to  judgment  was  the  slavery  question;  Penn  himself 
had  slaves,  though  he  came  to  doubt  the  righteousness  of  the 
practice,  and  liberated  them  in  his  will — or  would  have  done 
so,  had  the  injunction  been  carried  out  by  his  heirs.  Slaves 
in  Pennsylvania  were  to  serve  as  such  for  fourteen  years, 
and  then  become  adscripts  of  the  soil — that  is  to  say,  they 
were  permitted  to  become  the  same  thing  under  another 
name.  Penn  ultimately  conceived  the  ambition  to  vindi- 
cate the  presence  of  the  Inner  Light  in  the  negroes'  souls; 
but  he  met  with  small  success — even  less  than  with  the 
Indians.  The  problem  of  the  negro  was  not  to  be  solved 


QUAKER,  YANKEE,  AND  KING  189 

in  that  way,  or  at  that  time.  No  doubt,  if  a  negro  slave 
could  be  made  to  feel  that  the  mere  circumstance  of  ex- 
ternal bondage  was  nothing,  so  long  as  his  inner  man  was 
untrammeled,  it  would  add  greatly  to  the  convenience  both 
of  himself  and.  his  master.  But  the  theory  did  not  seem  to 
carry  weight  so  long  as  the  practice  accompanied  it ;  and 
the  world,  even  of  Pennsylvania,  was  not  quite  ready  to 
abolish  negro  slavery  in  1687. 

Of  the  thirteen  colonies,  twelve  had  now  had  their  begin- 
ning, and  Georgia,  the  home  of  poor  debtors,  shed  little  or 
no  fresh  light  upon  the  formation  of  the  American  princi- 
ple. The  Revolution  of  1688,  which  put  "William  of  Orange 
on  the  English  throne,  was  now  at  hand ;  but  before  examin- 
ing its  effect  upon  the  American  settlements  we  must  cast 
a  glance  at  the  transactions  of  the  previous  dozen  years  in 
the  New  England  division. 

The  theory  of  the  English  government  regarding  the 
American  colonies  had  always  been,  that  they  were  her 
property.  The  people  who  emigrated  had  been  English 
subjects,  and — to  adapt  the  Latin  proverb — Coelum,  non 
Regem,  mutant,  qui  trans  mare  currunt.  Moreover,  the 
English,  as  was  the  custom  of  the  age,  asserted  jurisdiction 
over  all  land  first  seen  and  claimed  by  mariners  flying  their 
flag;  and  though  Spain  and  France  might  claim  America 
with  quite  as  much  right  as  England,  yet  the  latter  would 
not  acknowledge  their  pretensions.  A  country,  then,  occu- 
pied by  English  subjects,  and  owned  by  England,  could  not 
reasonably  assert  its  private  independence. 

Such  was  England's  position,  from  which  she  never  fully 
receded  until  compelled  to  do  so  by  force  of  arms.  But  the 
colonists  looked  at  the  matter  from  a  different  point  of  view. 
Thej*  held  the  right  of  ownership  by  discovery  to  be  unsub- 
stantial; it  was  a  mere  sentiment — a  matter  of  national 
pride  and  prestige — not  to  be  valued  when  it  came  in  con- 
flict with  the  natural  right  conveyed  by  actual  emigration 
and  settlement.  The  man  who  transferred  himself,  with  his 


igo  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

family  and  property,  to  a  virgin  country,  intending  to  make 
his  permanent  home  there,  should  not  be  subject  to  arbitrary 
interference  from  any  one;  his  vital  interests  and  welfare 
were  involved;  he  should  be  ruled  by  authority  appointed 
by  himself;  should  pay  only  such  taxes  as  he  himself  levied 
for  the  expenses  of  his  establishment;  and  should  enjoy  the 
profits  of  whatever  products  he  raised  and  whatever  com- 
merce he  carried  on.  He  had  withdrawn  himself  from 
participation  in  the  advantages  of  home  civilization,  and 
had  voluntarily  faced  a  life  of  struggle  and  peril  in  the 
wilderness,  precisely  because  he  had  counted  these  things  as 
nothing  in  comparison  with  the  gain  of  controlling  his  own 
affairs ;  but  if,  nevertheless,  the  mother  country  insisted  on 
managing  them,  or  in  any  way  controlling  him,  then  all 
enterprise  became  vain,  all  his  sacrifices  had  been  fruitless, 
and  he  was  in  all  ways  worse  off  than  before  he  took  steps 
to  better  himself.  An  Englishman  living  in  England  might 
rightly  be  taxed  for  the  protection  to  life  and  property  and 
the  enjoyment  of  privileges  which  she  afforded  him,  and 
which  he,  through  a  representative  parliament,  created ;  but 
England  gave  no  protection  to  her  colonies,  and  the  colo- 
nists were  not  represented  in  her  parliament;  neither  had 
the  English  government  been  put  to  any  expense  or  trouble 
in  bringing  those  colonies  into  existence ;  to  tax  them,  there- 
fore, was  an  act  of  despotism ;  it  deprived  them  of  the  right 
which  all  Englishmen  possessed  to  the  fruits  of  their  own 
labor ;  it  robbed  them  of  values  for  which  no  equivalent  had 
been  yielded;  and  thus,  from  freemen,  made  them  slaves. 
Not  less  unjustifiable,  for  the  same  reasons,  was  interference 
with  colonial  governments,  and  with  religious  liberties  of  all 
kinds. 

England  could  not  categorically  refute  these  arguments; 
but  she  could  reply  that  her  granting  of  a  charter  to  the 
colonies  had  implied  some  hold  upon  them,  including  a  first 
lien  upon  commercial  products;  while  so  far  as  govern- 
mental jurisdiction  was  concerned,  it  might  be  considered 


QUAKER,  YANKEE,  AND  KING  191 

an  open  question  whether  the  colonies  were  capable  of  ade- 
quately governing  themselves,  and  she  was  therefore  war- 
ranted, in  the  interests  of  order,  in  exercising  that  function 
herself.  But  the  reply  was  a  weak  one;  and  when  the 
colonists  rejoined  that  the  charter,  if  it  had  any  practical 
significance  at  all,  merely  gave  expression  to  a  friendly 
interest  in  the  adventure,  as  a  parent  might  give  a  son  a 
letter  hoping  that  he  would  do  well;  and  that  the  question 
of  government  was  not  an  open  one,  inasmuch  as  the  order- 
liness and  efficiency  of  their  institutions  were  visible  and 
undeniable: — it  was  left  to  England  only  to  say  that,  once 
an  English  subject,  always  an  English  subject,  and  that 
when  she  commanded  the  colonies  must  comply. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  she  avoided  as  much  as  possible  put- 
ting this  ultimatum  in  precise  words;  and  the  colonies  were 
at  least  as  reluctant  to  oppose  a  definite  defiance.  Diplo- 
macy labors  long  before  acknowledging  a  finality.  There 
was  on  both  sides  a  deeply-rooted  determination  to  prevail ; 
but  an  open  rupture  was  shunned.  Furthermore,  a  strong 
sentiment  of  loyalty  existed  in  the  colonies,  which  senti- 
mentally and  sometimes  practically  injured  the  logic  of 
their  attitude.  They  acknowledged  the  English  king  to  be 
theirs;  they  addressed  him  in  deferential  and  submissive 
terms;  they  wished,  in  some  sense,  to  keep  hold  of  their 
mother's  hand,  and  yet  they  protested  against  the  mater- 
nal prerogative.  Their  status  was  anomalous;  and  it  is 
easy  to  say  that  they  should  have  declared  their  purpose, 
from  the  first,  to  be  an  independent  nation  in  the  full  sense 
of  the  word.  But  the  logical  and  the  natural  are  often  at 
variance.  Liberty  is  not  necessarily  attainable  only  through 
political  independence.  The  colonists,  if  they  wished  to  be 
another  England  in  miniature,  had  not  contemplated  becom- 
ing a  people  foreign  to  England,  in  the  sense  that  France 
or  Spain  was.  They  loved  the  English  flag,  in  spite  of  the 
cross  which  Endicott  disowned ;  they  were  proud  of  the  En- 
glish history  which  was  also  theirs.  Why  should  they  sever 


192  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

themselves  from  these?  It  was  not  until  English  injustice 
and  selfishness,  long  endured,  became  at  last  unendurable, 
that  the  resolve  to  live  truly  independent,  or  to  die,  fired  the 
muskets  of  Lexington  and  Concord. 

The  most  galling  of  the  measures  which  weighed  upon 
New  England  was  that  called  the  Navigation  Acts.  These 
were  passed  in  the  interests  of  the  English  trading  class, 
and  by  their  influence.  In  their  original  form,  in  1651,  they 
had  involved  no  serious  injury  to  the  colonies,  and  had, 
moreover,  been  so  slackly  enforced  that  they  were  almost  a 
dead  letter.  But  after  Charles  II.  came  to  the  throne,  they 
assumed  a  more  virulent  aspect.  They  forbade  the  impor- 
tation into  the  colonies  of  any  merchandise,  except  in  En- 
glish bottoms,  captained  by  Englishmen,  thus  excluding 
from  American  ports  every  cargo  not  owned  by  British 
merchants.  On  the  other  hand,  they  decreed  that  no 
American  produce  should  find  its  way  into  other  than 
English  hands,  except  such  things  as  the  English  did  not 
want,  or  could  buy  to  better  advantage  elsewhere;  and 
even  these  could  be  disposed  of  at  no  ports  nearer  England 
than  the  Mediterranean.  Next,  by  an  extension  of  the  Acts, 
the  inhabitants  of  one  colony  were  forbidden  to  deal  with 
those  of  another  except  on  payment  of  duties  intended  to 
be  prohibitory.  And  finally,  the  colonists  were  enjoined  not 
to  manufacture  even  for  their  private  consumption,  much 
less  for  export,  any  goods  which  English  manufacturers 
produced.  They  could  do  nothing  but  grow  crops,  and  the 
only  reason  that  anything  whatever  was  permitted  to  go 
from  the  colonies  to  foreign  ports,  was  in  order  that  the 
former  might  thus  get  money  with  which  to  pay  for  the 
forced  importations  from  England.  The  result  of  such  a 
policy  was,  of  course,  that  money  was  put  into  the  pockets 
of  English  shopkeepers,  but  all  other  Englishmen  gained 
nothing,  and  the  colonist  lost  the  amount  of  the  shop- 
keepers' profit,  as  well  as  the  incidental  and  incalculable 
advantages  of  free  enterprise. 


QUAKER,  YANKEE,  AND  KING  193 

These  laws  pressed  most  severely  on  Massachusetts,  be- 
cause her  shipping  exceeded  that  of  all  the  other  colonies, 
and  the  smuggling  which  their  geographical  peculiarities 
made  easy  to  them  was  impossible  for  her.  Besides,  manu- 
facturing was  never  followed  by  the  southern  colonies,  and 
their  chief  products,  tobacco  and  cotton,  not  being  grown 
elsewhere,  could  be  sold  at  almost  as  good  a  profit  in  Eng- 
land as  anywhere  else. 

But  if  Massachusetts  was  the  chief  object  of  these  op- 
pressive measures,  she  was  also  more  inflexible  than  the 
other  colonies  in  insisting  upon  her  rights.  The  motto  of 
the  Rattlesnake  flag  carried  at  the  beginning  of  the  Revo- 
lution— "Don't  tread  on  Me" — expressed  the  temper  of  her 
people  from  an  early  period  in  her  history.  "We  shall  shortly 
see  how  resolutely  and  courageously  she  fought  her  battle 
against  hopeless  odds.  Meanwhile,  we  may  inquire  how 
and  why  the  other  colonies  of  the  New  England  confedera- 
tion fared  better  at  the  hands  of  the  mother  country. 

One  of  the  most  agreeable  figures  in  our  colonial  history 
is  the  son  of  that  John  "Winthrop  who  brought  the  first  colo- 
nists to  Massachusetts  Bay,  on  June  22,  1630.  He  had  been 
born  at  Groton,  in  England,  in  1606,  and  was  therefore  fifty- 
six  years  old  when  he  returned  to  that  country  as  agent  for 
Connecticut,  and  obtained  its  charter  from  Charles.  He  had 
been  educated  at  Dublin,  and  before  emigrating  to  the  colo- 
nies had  been  a  soldier  in  the  French  wars,  and  had  traveled 
on  the  Continent.  After  landing  at  Boston,  he  had  helped 
his  father  in  his  duties,  and  had  then  founded  the  town  of 
Ipswich  in  Massachusetts.  None  was  more  ardent  than  he 
in  the  work  of  preparing  a  home  for  the  exiles  in  the  wil- 
derness ;  he  added  his  own  fortune  to  that  of  his  father,  and 
thought  no  effort  too  great.  In  him  the  elements  were  so 
kindly  mixed  that  his  heart  was  as  warm  and  his  mind  as 
liberal  as  his  energy  was  tireless ;  it  was  as  if  a  Roger  "Wil- 
liams had  been  mingled  with  an  elder  Winthrop ;  enthusi- 
asm and  charity  were  tempered  with  judgment  and  discre- 
U.S.— 9  VOL.  I. 


194  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

i 

tion.  The  love  of  creating  means  of  happiness  for  others 
was  his  ruling  motive,  and  he  was  gifted  with  the  ability 
to  carry  it  out;  he  felt  that  New  England  was  his  true 
home,  because  there  he  had  fullest  opportunity  for  his  self- 
appointed  work.  It  is  almost  an  effort  for  men  of  this  age 
to  conceive  of  a  nature  so  pure  as  this,  and  a  character  so 
blameless;  we  search  the  records  for  some  weakness  or 
deformity.  But  all  witnesses  testify  of  him  with  one  voice; 
and  it  may  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  spirit  of  Puritanism  at 
that  epoch  was  mighty  in  the  individual  as  in  the  commu- 
nity, purging  the  soul  of  many  self-indulgent  vices  which 
the  laxity  and  skepticism  of  our  time  encourage ;  and  when, 
in  addition,  there  is  a  nation  to  be  made  on  principles  so 
lofty  as  those  which  Puritanism  contemplated,  one  can  im- 
agine that  there  would  be  little  space  for  the  development  of 
the  lower  instincts,  or  the  unworthier  ambitions.  When  all 
is  said,  however,  Winthrop  the  Younger  still  remains  a  sur- 
prising and  rare  type ;  and  it  is  an  added  pleasure  to  know 
that  in  all  that  he  undertook  he  was  successful  (he  never 
undertook  anything  for  himself),  and  that  he  was  most 
happy  in  a  loving  wife  and  in  his  children.  It  was  a 
rounded  life,  such  as  a  romancer  hardly  dares  to  draw; 
yet  there  may  be  many  not  less  lovely,  only  less  conspicu- 
ously placed. 

When  there  was  need  for  a  man  to  go  to  England  and 
plead  before  the  king  for  Connecticut — of  which,  for  four- 
teen consecutive  years  thereafter,  he  was  annually  elected 
governor — who  but  Winthrop  could  be  selected?  He  went 
with  all  the  prayers  of  the  colony  for  his  good  fortune ;  and 
it  was  of  good  omen  that  he  met  there,  in  the  council  for  the 
colonies  appointed  by  the  king,  Edward  Hyde,  first  Earl  of 
Clarendon  and  Lord  Chancellor,  then  in  the  prime  of  his 
career,  and  two  years  younger  than  Winthrop ;  and  William 
Fiennes,  Viscount  Saye  and  Sele,  who  was  in  the  eightieth 
and  final  year  of  his  useful  and  honorable  career,  and  who, 
in  1632,  had  obtained  a  patent  for  land  on  the  Connecti- 


,, — 


QUAKER,  YANKEE,  AND  KING  195 

cut  river.  Through  his  influence  the  interest  of  the  Lord 
Chamberlain  was  secured,  and  Clarendon  himself  was  cor- 
dial for  the  charter.  With  such  support,  the  way  was  easy, 
and  the  document  was  executed  in  April  of  1662.  It  gave 
the  colonists  all  the  powers  of  an  independent  government. 
There  was  no  reservation  whatever;  their  acts  were  not 
subject  even  to  royal  inspection.  Nevertheless,  Charles,  by 
effecting  the  amalgamation  of  New  Haven  with  Hartford, 
not  altogether  with  the  consent  of  the  former,  arbitrarily 
set  aside  the  provision  of  the  federation  compact  which  for- 
bade union  between  any  of  its  members  except  with  the 
consent  of  all;  and  thereby  he  asserted  his  jurisdiction  (if 
he  chose  to  exercise  it)  over  all  the  colonies.  He  could  give 
gracious  gifts,  but  on  the  understanding  that  they  were  of 
grace,  not  obligation.  In  the  oppression  of  Massachusetts, 
this  served  as  an  unfortunate  precedent. 

Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  the  happiness  of  Connecti- 
cut was  in  part  due  to  the  fact  that,  as  a  matter  of  high 
policy,  it  was  desired  to  conciliate  her  at  Massaohuaetts's 
expense.  Massachusetts  was  much  the  strongest  of  the  colo- 
nies; her  tendency  to  disaffection  was  known  in  England; 
and  it  seemed  expedient  to  place  her  in  a  position  isolated 
from  her  sisters.  Were  all  of  them  equally  wronged,  their 
union  against  the  oppressor  was  inevitable.  Connecticut 
and  Rhode  Island  could  be  of  small  present  value  to  Eng- 
land from  the  commercial  standpoint,  and  their  heartfelt 
loyalty  seemed  cheaply  purchased  by  suffering  that  value 
to  accumulate.  Charles  could  be  lavish  and  reckless,  and 
he  was  constitutionally  "good-humored" — that  is,  he  liked 
to  have  things  go  smoothly,  and  if  anybody  suffered,  wished 
the  fact  to  be  kept  out  of  his  sight.  But  he  was  incapable 
of  generosity,  in  the  sense  of  voluntarily  sacrificing  any  self- 
ish interest  for  a  noble  end;  and  if  he  patted  Connecticut 
on  the  back,  it  was  only  in  order  that  she  might  view  with 
toleration  his  highway  robbery  of  her  sister. 

All  this,  however,  need  not  dash  our  satisfaction  at  the 


196  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

i 

advantages  which  Connecticut  enjoyed,  and  the  good  they 
did  her.  The  climate  and  physical  nature  of  the  country 
required  an  active  and  wholesome  life  in  the  inhabitants, 
while  yet  the  conditions  were  not  so  severe  as  to  discourage 
them.  They  were  of  a  rustic,  hardy,  industrious  temper,  of 
virtuous  and  godly  life,  and  animated  by  the  consciousness 
of  being  well  treated.  They  lived  and  labored  on  their 
farms,  and  there  were  not  so  many  of  them  that  the  farms 
crowded  upon  one  another,  though  the  population  increased 
rapidly.  Each  of  them  delighted  in  the  cultivation  of  his 
private  "conscience";  and,  in  the  absence  of  wars  and  op- 
pressions, they  argued  one  with  another  on  points  of  the- 
ology, fate,  freewill,  foreknowledge  absolute.  They  were 
far  from  indifferent  to  learning,  but  they  liked  nothing 
quite  so  well  as  manhood  and  integrity.  The  Connecticut 
Yankee  impressed  his  character  on  American  history,  and 
wherever  in  our  country  there  has  been  evidence  of  pluck, 
enterprise  and  native  intelligence,  it  has  generally  been 
found  that  a  son  of  Connecticut  was  not  far  off.  They 
were  not  averse  from  journeying  over  the  earth,  and  many 
of  them  had  the  pioneer  spirit,  and  left  their  place  of  birth 
to  establish  a  miniature  Connecticut  elsewhere;  their  de- 
Ascendants  will  be  found  as  far  west  as  Oregon,  and  their 
whalers  knew  the  paths  of  the  Pacific  as  well  as  they  did 
the  channels  of  Long  Island  Sound.  Tolerant,  sturdy, 
pious,  shrewd,  prudent  and  brave,  they  formed  the  best 
known  type  of  the  characteristic  New  Englander,  as  rep- 
resented by  the  national  figure  of  Uncle  Sam.  They  were 
sociable  and  inquisitive,  yet  they  knew  how  to  keep  their 
own  counsel;  and  the  latch-string  hung  out  all  over  the 
colony,  in  testimony  at  once  of  their  honesty  and  their  hos- 
pitality. Few  things  came  to  them  from  the  outer  world, 
and  few  went  out  from  them ;  they  were  industrially  as  well 
as  politically  independent.  They  were  economical  in  both 
their  private  and  their  public  habits;  no  money  was  to  be 
made  in  politics,  partly  because  every  one  was  from  his 


QUAKER,  YANKEE,  AND  KING  197 

youth  up  trained  in  political  procedure;  every  town  was  a 
republic  in  little.  The  town  meeting  was  open  to  all  citi- 
zens, and  each  could  have  his  say  in  it,  and  many  an  acute 
suggestion  and  shrewd  criticism  came  from  humble  lips. 
It  is  in  such  town  meetings  that  the  legislators  were 
trained  who  then,  and  ever  since,  have  become  leading 
figures  in  the  statesmanship  of  the  country.  In  England, 
a  hereditary  aristocracy  were  educated  to  govern  the  na- 
tion; in  the  colonies,  a  nation  was  educated  to  govern 
itself.  Our  system  was  the  sounder  and  the  safer  of  the 
two.  But  the  professional  politician  was  then  unthought 
of;  he  came  as  the  result  of  several  conditions  incident  to 
our  national  development;  he  has  perhaps  already  touciied 
his  apogee,  and  is  beginning  to  disappear.  The  nation  has 
awakened  to  a  realization  that  its  interests  are  not  safe  in 
his  hands. 

Calvinism  prevailed  in  the  colony,  as  in  Massachusetts; 
but  there  were  many  of  the  colonists  who  did  not  attend  at 
the  meeting-house  on  the  Sabbath,  not  because  they  were 
irreligious  or  vicious,  but  either  because  they  lived  far  from 
the  rendezvous,  or  because  they  did  not  find  it  a  matter  of 
private  conscience  with  them  to  sit  in  a  pew  and  listen  to  a 
sermon.  Moreover,  it  was  the  rule  among  Calvinists  that 
no  one  could  join  in  the  Communion  service  who  had  not 
"experienced  religion";  and  many  excellent  persons  might 
entertain  conscientious  doubts  whether  this  mysterious  sub- 
jective phenomenon  had  taken  place  in  them.  Pending 
enlightenment  on  that  point,  they  would  naturally  prefer 
not  to  sit  beside  their  more  favored  brethren  during  the 
long  period  of  prayer  and  discourse,  only  to  be  obliged  to 
walk  out  when  the  vital  stage  of  the  proceedings  was 
reached.  But  it  was  also  the  law  that  only  children  of 
communicants  should  receive  baptism;  and  since  not  to  be 
baptized  was  in  the  religious  opinion  of  the  day  to  court 
eternal  destruction,  it  will  easily  be  understood  that  non- 
communicating  parents  were  rendered  very  uneasy.  What 


198  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

could  they  do?  One  cannot  get  religion  by  an  act  of  will; 
but  not  to  get  it  was  to  imperil  not  only  their  own  spiritual 
welfare,  but  that  of  their  innocent  offspring  as  well;  they 
were  damned  to  all  posterity.  The  matter  came  up  before 
the  general  court  of  Connecticut,  and  in  1657  a  synod  com- 
posed of  ministers  of  that  colony  and  of  Massachusetts — 
New  Haven  and  Plymouth  declining  to  participate — sat  upon 
the  question,  and  softened  the  hard  fate  of  the  petitioners  so 
far  as  to  permit  the  baptism  of  the  children  of  unbaptized 
persons  who  engaged  to  rear  them  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord. 
This  "half-way  covenant,"  as  it  came  to  be  termed,  did  not 
suit  the  scruples  of  Calvinists  of  the  stricter  sort;  but  it 
gave  comfort  to  a  great  many  deserving  folk,  and  prob- 
ably did  harm  to  no  human  soul,  here  or  hereafter. 

Short  are  the  annals  of  a  happy  people ;  until  the  Revo- 
lutionary days  began,  there  is  little  to  tell  of  Connecticut. 
The  collegiate  school  which  half  a  generation  later  grew 
into  the  college  taking  its  name  from  its  chief  benefactor, 
Elihu  Yale,  had  its  early  days  in  the  village  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Connecticut  rivgr,  named,  after  Lord  Saye  and  Sele, 
Saybrook.  The  institution  of  learning  called  after  the  pious 
and  erudite  son  of  the  English  butcher  of  Southwark, 
founded  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Charles  near  Boston, 
had  come  into  existence  more  than  sixty  years  before ;  but 
Yale  followed  less  than  forty  years  after  the  granting  of 
the  Connecticut  charter.  New  England  people  never  lost 
any  time  about  securing  the  means  of  education. 

The  boundaries  of  Rhode  Island  were  the  occasion  of 
some  trouble;  though  one  might  have  supposed  that  since 
the  area  which  they  inclosed  was  so  small,  no  one  would 
have  been  at  the  pains  to  dispute  them.  But  in  the  end, 
Roger  Williams  obtained  the  little  he  had  asked  for  in  this 
regard,  while  as  to  liberties,  his  charter  made  his  commu- 
nity at  least  as  well  off  as  was  Connecticut.  Their  aspira- 
tion to  be  allowed  to  prove  that  the  best  civil  results  may 


QUAKER,  YANKEE,  AND  KING  199 

be  coincident  with  complete  religious  freedom,  was  real- 
ized. Charles  gave  them  everything;  liberty  for  a  people 
who  thought  more  of  God  than  of  their  breakfasts,  and 
whose  habitation  was  too  small  for  its  representation  on  the 
map  to  be  seen  without  a  magnifying  glass,  could  not  be  a 
dangerous  gift.  The  charter  was  delivered  in  1663  to  John 
Clarke,  agent  in  England  for  the  colony,  and  was  taken  to 
Rhode  Island  by  the  admirable  Baxter  in  November  of  that 
year.  All  the  two  thousand  or  more  inhabitants  of  the 
colony  met  together  to  receive  the  precious  gift;  Baxter, 
placed  on  high,  read  it  out  to  them  with  his  best  voice  and 
delivery,  and  then  held  it  up  so  that  all  might  behold  the 
handsomely  engrossed  parchment,  and  the  sacred  seal  of  his 
dread  majesty  King  Charles.  What  a  picture  of  democratic 
and  childlike  simplicity !  "With  how  devout  and  earnest  an 
exultation  did  the  people  murmur  their  thanks  and  applause  1 
The  crowd  in  their  conical  hats  and  dark  cloaks,  the  chill 
November  sky,  the  gray  ripples  of  Narragansett  Bay,  the 
background  of  forest  trees,  of  which  only  the  oaks  and  wal- 
nuts still  retained  the  red  and  yellow  remnants  of  their 
autumn  splendor;  the  quaint  little  ship  at  anchor,  with  its 
bearded  crew  agape  along  the  rail;  and  Baxter  the  center 
of  all  eyes,  holding  up  the  charter  with  a  sort  of  holy  en- 
thusiasm! Such  a  scene  could  be  but  once;  and  tune  has 
brought  about  his  revenges.  With  what  demeanor  would 
the  throng  at  the  fashionable  watering  place  greet  a  mes- 
senger from  the  English  sovereign  to-day!  John  Clarke, 
the  Bedfordshire  doctor,  to  whose  fidelity  and  persistent 
care  the  colony  owed  much,  fully  participated  in  the  conta- 
gion of  goodness  which  marked  the  New  England  emi- 
grants of  the  period.  He  served  his  fellow  colonists  all  his 
life,  and  at  his  death  left  them  all  he  had;  and  it  seems 
strange  that  he  should  have  been  one  of  the  founders  of 
aristocratic  Newport,  and  its  earliest  pastor.  But  it  is  not 
the  only  instance  of  the  unexpected  use  to  which  we  some- 
times put  the  bequests  of  our  ancestors. 


200  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

The  early  vicissitudes  of  Maine,  New  Hampshire  and 
Vermont  are  hardly  of  importance  enough  to  warrant  a 
detailed  examination.  Vermont  was  not  settled  till  well 
into  the  Eighteenth  Century.  Maine  had  been  fingered  by 
the  French,  and  used  as  a  base  of  operations  by  fishermen, 
long  before  its  connection  with  Massachusetts;  the  persist- 
ency of  Gorges  complicated  its  position  for  more  than  forty 
years.  After  his  death,  and  in  the  irresponsiveness  of  his 
heirs,  the  few  inhabitants  of  the  region  were  constrained  to 
shift  for  themselves;  in  1652  the  jurisdiction  was  found  to 
extend  three  miles  north  of  the  source  of  the  Merrimack, 
and  Massachusetts  offering  its  protection  in  enabling  a 
government  to  be  formed,  and  acting  upon  the  priority  of 
its  grant,  annexed  the  whole  specified  region.  But  more 
than  twenty  years  afterward,  in  1677,  the  English  commit- 
tee of  the  privy  council  examined  the  charter,  and  found 
that  Massachusetts  had  no  jurisdiction  over  Maine  and 
New  Hampshire  (the  separate  existence  of  which  last  had 
scarcely  been  defined).  The  direct  object  of  this  decision 
of  the  committee  was  to  provide  the  bastard  son  of  Charles, 
Monmouth,  with  a  kingdom  of  his  own ;  no  one  knew  any- 
thing about  the  resources  or  possibilities  of  the  domain, 
and,  omne  ignotum  pro  magnifico,  it  was  surmised  that  it 
would  yield  abundant  revenues.  But  Massachusetts  did  not 
want  the  Duke  for  a  neighbor;  and  while  Charles  was  con- 
sidering terms  of  purchase,  she  bought  up  the  Gorges  claim 
for  some  twelve  hundred  pounds.  The  Maine  of  that  epoch 
was  not,  of  course,  the  same  as  that  of  to-day ;  the  French 
claimed  down  to  the  Kennebec,  and  the  Duke  of  York,  not 
content  with  New  York,  asserted  his  ownership  from  the 
Kennebec  to  the  Penobscot ;  so  that  for  Massachusetts  was 
left  only  what  intervened  between  the  Kennebec  and  the 
Piscataqua.  Being  proprietor  of  this,  she  made  it  a  prov- 
ince with  a  governor  and  council  whom  she  appointed,  and 
a  legislature  derived  from  the  people ;  the  province  not  rel- 
ishing its  subordination,  but  being  forced  to  submit.  Two 


QUAKER,  YANKEE,  AND  KING  201 

years  later,  in  1679,  New  Hampshire  was  cut  off  from 
Massachusetts  and  made  the  first  royal  province  of  New 
England.  The  people  of  the  province  were  ill-disposed  to 
surrender  any  of  the  liberties  which  they  saw  their  neigh- 
bors in  the  enjoyment  of;  and  disregarding  the  feelings  of 
the  king's  appointee,  its  representatives  declared  that  only 
laws  made  by  the  assembly  and  approved  by  the  people 
should  be  valid.  Robert  Mason,  who  had  a  patent  to  part 
of  the  region,  finding  himself  opposed  by  the  colonists,  got 
permission  from  England  to  appoint  an  adventurer,  Edward 
Cranfield,  governor;  Cranfield  went  forth  with  hopes  of 
much  plunder;  but  they  would  not  admit  his  legitimacy, 
and  he  took  the  unprecedented  step  of  dissolving  the  assem- 
bly; the  farmers  revolted,  and  their  ringleader,  Gove,  was 
condemned  for  treason,  and  spent  four  years  in  the  Tower 
of  London.  It  was  another  attempt  to  convince  the  spirit 
of  liberty  by  "the  worst  argument  in  the  world";  but  it 
was  ridiculous  as  well  as  bad  in  Gove's  case;  he  was  but 
a  hard-fisted  uneducated  countryman,  whose  belief  that  the 
patch  of  land  he  had  cleared  and  planted  among  the  New 
England  mountains  was  his  and  not  another's,  was  not  to 
be  dissipated  by  dungeons.  The  disputed  land-titles  got 
into  the  law  courts,  where  judges  and  juries  were  fixed; 
but  no  matter  which  way  the  decisions  went,  the  people 
kept  their  own.  Cranfield  sent  an  alarmist  report  of  affairs 
to  London,  declaring  that  "factions"  would  bring  about  a 
separation  of  the  colony  unless  a  frigate  were  sent  to  Bos- 
ton to  enforce  loyalty.  Nothing  was  done.  Cranfield  tried 
to  raise  money  through  the  assembly  by  a  tale  about  an 
invasion,  which  existed  nowhere  save  in  his  own  imagina- 
tion; the  assembly  refused  to  be  stampeded.  The  clergy 
were  against  him,  and  he  attempted  to  overcome  them  by 
restrictive  orders;  but  they  defied  him;  he  imprisoned  one 
of  them,  Moody;  and  succeeded  in  disturbing  church  ser- 
vice; but  the  people  would  rather  not  go  to  meeting  than 
obey  Cranfield.  His  last  effort  was  to  try  to  levy  taxes 


202  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

under  pretense  of  an  Indian  war ;  but  the  people  thwacked 
the  tax  collectors  with  staves,  and  the  women  threatened 
them  with  hot  water.  A  call  for  troops  to  quell  the  dis- 
turbances was  utterly  disregarded.  How  was  a  governor 
to  govern  people  who  refused  to  be  governed? 

Cranfield  gave  it  up.  He  had  been  struggling  three 
years,  and  had  accomplished  nothing.  He  wrote  home 
that  he  "should  esteem  it  the  greatest  happiness  to  be 
allowed  to  remove  from  these  unreasonable  people";  and 
this  happiness  was  accorded  to  him ;  it  was  the  only  happi- 
ness which  his  appointment  had  afforded.  New  Hampshire 
was  in  bad  odor  with  the  English  government;  but  the 
farmers  could  endure  that  with  equanimity.  They  had 
demonstrated  that  the  granite  of  their  mountains  had 
somehow  got  into  their  own  composition;  and  they  were 
let  alone  for  the  present,  the  rather  since  Massachusetts 
was  enough  to  occupy  the  king's  council  at  that  tune. 

The  fight  between  Massachusetts  and  Charles  began 
with  the  latter's  accession  in  1660,  and  continued  till  his 
death,  when  it  was  continued  by  James  II.  The  charter 
of  the  colony  was  adjudged  to  be  forfeited  in  1684,  twenty- 
four  years  after  the  struggle  opened.  While  it  was  at  its 
height,  the  Indian  war  broke  out  to  which  the  name  of  the 
Pokanoket  chief,  King  Philip,  has  been  attached.  Thus 
both  the  diplomacy  and  the  arms  of  the  colony  were  tested 
to  the  utmost,  at  one  and  the  same  time;  the  American 
soldiers  were  victorious,  though  at  a  serious  cost  of  life  and 
treasure;  the  diplomatists  were  defeated;  but  Massachusetts 
had  learned  her  strength  in  both  directions,  and  suffered 
less,  in  the  end,  by  her  defeat  than  by  her  victory.  The 
issue  between  England  and  her  colony  had  become  clearly 
defined;  the  people  learned  by  practice  what  they  already 
knew  in  theory — the  hatefulness  of  despotism;  and  their 
resolve  to  throw  it  off  when  the  opportunity  should  arrive 
was  not  discouraged,  but  confirmed.  From  the  Indian  war 
they  gained  less  than  a  wise  peace  would  have  given  them, 


QUAKER,  YANKEE,  AND  KING  203 

and  they  lost  women  and  children  as  well  as  men.  Such 
conflicts,  once  begun,  «nust  be  pushed  to  the  extremity ;  but 
it  cannot  but  be  wished  that  the  people  of  Massachusetts 
might  have  found  a  means  of  living  with  the  red  men,  as 
their  brethren  in  Pennsylvania  did,  in  peace  and  amity. 
The  conduct  of  Indians  in  war  can  never  be  approved  by 
the  white  race,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  provocations 
which  set  them  on  the  warpath  always  can  be  traced  to 
some  act  of  injustice,  real  or  fancied,  wanton  or  accidental, 
on  our  part.  King  Philip  was  fighting  for  precisely  the 
same  object  that  was  actuating  the  colonists  in  their  battle 
with  King  Charles.  Doubtless  the  rights  of  a  few  thou- 
sand savages  are  insignificant  compared  with  the  higher 
principles  of  human  liberty  for  which  we  contended;  but 
Philip  could  not  be  expected  to  acknowledge  this,  and  we 
should  extend  to  him  precisely  the  same  sympathy  that  we 
feel  for  ourselves. 

A  great  deal  of  pains  had  been  taken  to  convert  and 
civilize  these  New  England  tribes.  John  Eliot  translated 
the  Bible  for  them;  and  it  was  he  who  made  the  first 
attempt  to  determine  the  grammar  of  their  speech.  But 
though  many  Indians  professed  the  Christian  faith,  and 
some  evinced  a  certain  aptitude  in  letters,  no  new  life 
was  awakened  in  any  of  them,  and  no  permanent  good 
results  were  attained.  Meanwhile,  the  Pokanokets,  with 
Philip  at  their  head,  refused  to  accept  the  white  man's 
God,  or  his  learning;  and  they  watched  with  anxiety  his 
growing  numbers  and  power.  They  had  sold  mile  after 
mile  of  land  to  the  English,  not  realizing  that  the  aggre- 
gate of  these  transactions  was  literally  taking  the  ground 
from  under  their  feet ;  but  the  purchasers  had  the  future  as 
well  as  the  present  in  view,  and  contrived  so  to  distribute 
their  holdings  as  gradually  to  push  the  Indians  into  the 
necks  of  land  whence  the  only  outlet  was  the  sea.  It  was 
the  old  story  of  encroachment,  with  always  a  deed  to  justify 
it,  signed  with  the  mark  of  the  savage,  good  in  law,  but  to 


204  HISTORY   OF   THi   UNITED  STATES 

his  mind  a  device  to  ensnare  him  to  his  hurt.  In  1674, 
Philip  was  compelled  to  appear  before  a  court  and  be  ex- 
amined, whereat  his  indignation  was  aroused,  and,  either 
with  or  without  his  privity,  the  informer  who  had  procured 
his  arrest  was  murdered.  The  murderers  were  apprehended 
and  sentenced  to  be  hanged  by  a  jury,  half  white  and  half 
Indian.  The  tribe  retaliated  and  war  was  begun. 

Philip,  or  Metaconet,  the  son  of  Massasoit,  may  at  this 
time  have  been  about  forty  years  old;  he  had  been  "King" 
for  twelve  years.  The  portraits  of  him  show  a  face  and 
head  that  one  can  hardly  accept  as  veracious ;  an  enormous 
forehead  impending  over  a  small  face,  with  an  almost  deli- 
cate mouth.  But  he  was  obviously  a  man  of  ability,  and 
his  courage  was  hardened  by  desperation.  Hia  aim  was 
to  unite  all  the  tribes  in  an  effort  to  exterminate  the  entire 
English  population,  though  this  has  been  estimated  to  num- 
ber in  New  England,  at  that  time,  more  than  fifty  thousand 
persons.  The  odds  were  all  upon  the  colonists'  side;  but 
they  had  not  yet  learned  the  Indian  method  of  warfare, 
and  the  woods,  hills  and  swamps,  and  the  unprotected  state 
of  many  of  the  settlements,  gave  the  Indians  opportunities 
to  prolong  the  struggle  which  they  amply  improved.  Had 
they  been  united,  and  adequately  armed,  the  issue  might 
have  been  different. 

Captain  Benjamin  Church,  a  hardy  pioneer  of  six  and 
thirty,  who  had  watched  the  ways  of  the  Indians,  and 
learned  their  strategy,  soon  became  prominent  in  the  war, 
and  ended  as  its  most  conspicuous  and  triumphant  figure. 
At  first  the  colonists  were  successful,  and  Philip  was  driven 
off;  but  this  did  but  enable  him  to  spread  the  outbreak 
among  other  tribes.  From  July  of  1675  till  August  of  the 
next  year,  the  life  of  no  one  on  the  borders  was  safe.  The 
settlers  went  to  the  meeting-house  armed,  and  turned  out 
at  the  first  alarm.  They  were  killed  at  their  plowing ;  they 
were  ambuscaded  and  cut  off,  tortured,  slam,  and  their  dis- 
severed bodies  hung  upon  the  trees.  At  the  brook  there- 


QUAKER,  YANKEE,  AND  KING  205 

4 

after  called  Bloody  Run,  near  Deerfield,  over  seventy  young 
men  were  surprised  and  killed.  Women  and  children  were 
not  spared ;  it  was  hardly  sparing  them  to  carry  them  into 
captivity,  as  was  often  done.  The  villages  which  were  at- 
tacked were  set  on  fire  after  the  tomahawking  and  scalping 
were  done.  Horrible  struggles  would  take  place  in  the  con- 
fined rooms  of  the  little  cabins;  blood  and  mangled  corpses 
desecrated  the  familiar  hearths,  and  throughout  sounded  the 
wild  yell  of  the  savages,  and  the  flames  crackled  and  licked 
through  the  crevices  of  the  logs. 

In  December,  Church  commanded,  or  accompanied,  the 
little  army  which  plowed  through  night  and  snow  to  attack 
the  palisaded  fort  and  village,  strongly  situated  on  an  island 
of  high  ground  in  the  midst  of  a  swamp,  in  the  township 
of  New  Kingston.  The  Narragansetts  were  surprised;  the 
soldiers  burst  their  way  through  the  palisades,  and  the  red 
and  the  white  men  met  hand  to  hand  in  a  desperate  con- 
flict. Then  the  tomahawk  measured  itself  against  the 
sword,  and  before  it  faltered  more  than  two  hundred  of 
the  New  Englanders  had  been  killed  or  wounded,  and  the 
village  was  on  fire.  The  pools  of  blood  which  the  frost 
had  congealed,  bubbled  in  the  heat  of  the  flames.  None 
could  escape;  infants,  old  women,  all  must  die.  It  was  as 
ghastly  a  fight  as  was  ever  fought.  The  victors  remained 
in  the  charred  shambles  till  evening,  resting  and  caring  for 
their  wounded;  and  then,  as  the  snow  began  to  fall,  went 
back  to  Wickford,  carrying  the  wounded  with  them.  It  is 
said  that  a  thousand  Indian  warriors  fell  on  that  day. 

At  Hadfield  had  occurred  the  striking  episode  of  the  con- 
gregation, surprised  at  their  little  church,  and  about  to  be 
overcome,  being  rescued  by  a  mysterious  gray  champion, 
who  appeared  none  knew  whence,  rallied  them,  and  led 
them  to  victory.  It  was  believed  to  be  Goffe,  one  of  the 
men  who  sentenced  Charles  I.  to  be  beheaded,  who  had 
escaped  to  New  England  at  the  time  of  the  Restoration, 
and  had  dwelt  in  retirement  there  till  the  peril  of  his  felr 


206  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

low  exiles  called  him  forth.  The  war  was  full  of  harrowing 
scenes  and  strange  deliverances.  Anne  Brackett,  a  prisoner 
in  an  Indian  party,  crossed  Casco  Bay  in  a  birch-bark  canoe, 
with  her  husband  and  infant,  and  was  rescued  by  a  vessel 
which  happened  to  enter  the  harbor  at  the  critical  moment. 
Church  hunted  the  Indians  with  more  than  their  own 
cunning  and  persistency ;  and  at  last  it  was  he  who  led  the 
party  which  effected  Philip's  death.  The  royal  Indian  was 
hemmed  in  in  a  sWamp,  and  finally  killed  by  a  traitor  from 
his  own  side.  The  savages  could  fight  no  more;  they  had 
caused  the  death  of  six  hundred  men,  had  burned  a  dozen 
towns,  and  compelled  the  expenditure  of  half  a  million  dol- 
lars. Scattered  alarms  and  tragedies  stiU  occurred  in  the 
East,  and  along  the  borders;  but  the  war  was  over.  In 
1678  peace  was  signed.  And  then  Massachusetts  turned 
once  more  to  her  deadlier  enemy,  King  Charles. 


CHAPTER    EIGHTH 

THE  STUARTS  AND    THE   CHARTER 

HE  cutting  off  of  Charles  I.  's  head  was  a  deed 
which  few  persons  in  Massachusetts  would 
have  advocated;  Cromwell  himself  had  re- 
marked that  it  was  a  choice  between  the 
king's  head  and  his  own.  History  has  upon 
the  whole  accepted  the  choice  he  made  as 
salutary.  Achilles,  forgetting  his  heel,  deemed  himself 
invulnerable,  and  his  conduct  became  in  consequence  in- 
tolerable ;  Charles,  convinced  that  his  anointed  royalty  was 
sacred,  was  led  on  to  commit  such  fantastic  tricks  before 
high  heaven  as  made  the  godly  weep.  Achilles  was  dis- 


THE  STUARTS  AND  THE  CHARTER     207 

flhisioned  by  the  arrow  of  Paris,  and  Charles  by  the  ax  of 
Cromwell.  Death  is  a  wholesome  argument  at  times. 

But  though  a  later  age  could  recognize  the  high  expe- 
diency of  Charles's  taking  off,  it  was  too  bold  and  novel 
to  meet  with  general  approbation  at  the  time,  even  from 
men  who  hated  kingly  rule.  Prejudice  has  a  longer  root 
than  it  itself  believes.  And  the  Puritans  of  New  Eng- 
land, having  been  removed  from  the  immediate  pressure 
of  the  king's  eccentricities,  were  the  less  likely  to  exult 
over  his  end.  Many  of  them  were  shocked  at  it;  more 
regretted  it;  perhaps  the  majority  accepted  it  with  a  sober 
equanimity.  They  were  not  bloodthirsty,  but  they  were 
stern. 

Neither  were  they  demonstrative;  so  that  they  took  the 
Parliament  and  the  Protector  calmly,  if  cordially,  and  did 
not  use  the  opportunity  of  their  predominance  to  cast  gibes 
upon  their  predecessor.  So  that,  when  the  Restoration  was 
an  established  fact,  they  had  little  to  retract.  They  ad- 
dressed Charles  II.  gravely,  as  one  who  by  experience  knew 
the  hearts  of  exiles,  and  told  him  that,  as  true  men,  they 
feared  God  and  the  king.  They  entreated  him  to  consider 
their  sacrifices  and  worthy  purposes,  and  to  confirm  them  in 
the  enjoyment  of  their  liberties.  Of  the  execution,  and  of 
the  ensuing  "confusions,"  they  prudently  forbore  to  speak. 
It  was  better  to  say  nothing  than  either  to  offend  their  con- 
sciences, or  to  utter  what  Charles  would  dislike  to  hear. 
Their  case,  as  they  well  knew,  was  critical  enough  at  best. 
Every  foe  of  New  England  and  of  liberty  would  not  fail  to 
whisper  malice  in  the  king's  ear.  They  sent  over  an  envoy 
to  make  the  best  terms  he  could,  and  in  particular  to  ask 
for  the  suspension  of  the  Navigation  Acts.  But  the  com- 
mittee had  small  faith  in  the  loyalty  of  the  colony,  and  even 
believed,  or  professed  to  do  so,  that  it  might  invite  the  aid 
of  Catholic  and  barbarous  Spain  against  its  own  blood :  they 
judged  of  others'  profligacy  by  their  own.  The  king,  to 
gain  time,  sent  over  a  polite  message,  which  meant  noth- 


208  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

X 

fng,  or  rather  less;  for  the  next  news  was  that  the  Acts 
were  to  be  enforced. 

Massachusetts  thereupon  proceeded  to  define  her  posi- 
tion. A  committee  composed  of  her  ablest  men  caused  a 
paper  to  be  published  by  the  general  court  affirming  their 
right  to  do  certain  things  which  England,  they  knew,  would 
be  indisposed  to  permit.  In  brief,  they  claimed  religious 
and  civil  independence,  the  latter  in  all  but  name,  and  left 
the  king  to  be  a  figurehead  without  perquisites  or  power. 
They  followed  this  intrepid  statement  by  solemnly  pro- 
claiming Charles  in  Boston,  and  threw  a  sop  to  Cerberus 
in  the  shape  of  a  letter  couched  in  conciliating  terms, 
feigning  to  believe  that  their  attitude  would  win  his  appro- 
bation. Altogether,  it  was  a  thrust  under  the  fifth  rib, 
with  a  bow  and  a  smile  on  the  recover.  Probably  the 
thrust  represented  the  will  of  the  majority;  the  bow  and 
smile,  the  prudence  of  the  timid  sort.  Simon  Bradstreet 
and  John  Norton  were  dispatched  to  London  to  receive  the 
king's  answer.  They  went  in  January  of  1662,  and  after 
waiting  through  the  spring  and  summer,  not  without  cour- 
teous treatment,  returned  in  the  fall  with  Charles's  reply, 
which,  after  confirming  the  charter  and  pardoning  political 
infidelities  under  the  Protectorate,  went  on  to  refuse  all  the 
special  points  which  the  colony  had  urged. 

Already  at  this  stage  of  the  contest  it  had  become  evi- 
dent that  the  question  was  less  of  conforming  with  any 
particular  demand  or  command  on  the  king's  part,  than  of 
admitting  his  right  to  exercise  his  will  at  all  in  the  prem- 
ises. If  the  colony  conceded  his  sovereignty,  they  could 
not  afterward  draw  the  line-  at  which  its  power  was  to 
cease.  And  yet  they  could  not  venture  to  .declare  abso- 
lute independence,  partly  because,  if  it  came  to  a  struggle 
in  arms,  they  could  not  hope  to  prevail;  and  partly  be- 
cause absolute  independence  was  less  desired  than  auton- 
omy under  the  English  flag.  England  was  as  far  from 
granting  autonomy  to  Massachusetts  as  independence,  but 


THE  STUARTS  AND  THE  CHARTER     209 

was  willing,  if  possible,  to  constrain  her  by  fair  means 
rather  than  by  foul.  Meanwhile,  the  tongue  of  rumor 
fomented  discord.  It  was  said  in  the  colony  that  Eng- 
land designed  the  establishment  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
in  Massachusetts;  whereupon  the  laws  against  toleration 
of  "heretics,"  which  had  been  falling  into  disuse,  were 
stringently  revived.  In  London  the  story  went  that  the 
escaped  regicides  had  united  the  four  chief  colonies  and 
were  about  to  lead  them  in  arms  to  revolt.  Clarendon,  to 
relieve  anxiety,  sent  a  reassuring  message  to  Boston;  but 
its  good  effect  was  spoiled  by  a  report  that  commissioners 
were  coming  to  regulate  their  affairs.  The  patent  of  the 
colony  was  placed  in  hiding,  the  trained  bands  were  drilled, 
the  defenses  of  the  harbor  were  looked  to,  and  a  fast  day 
was  named  with  the  double  purpose  of  asking  the  favor  of 
God,  and  of  informing  the  colony  as  to  what  was  in  the 
wind.  Assuredly  there  must  have  been  stout  souls  in  Bos- 
ton in  those  days.  A  few  thousand  exiles  were  actually 
preparing  to  resist  England! 

The  warning  had  not  been  groundless.  The  fleet  which 
had  been  fitted  out  to  drive  the  Dutch  governor,  Peter  Stuy- 
vesant,  from  Manhattan,  stopped  at  Boston  on  its  way;  and 
we  may  imagine  that  its  entrance  into  the  harbor  on  that 
July  day  was  observed  with  keen  interest  by  the  great- 
grandfathers of  the  men  of -Bunker  Hill.  It  was  not  ex- 
actly known  what  the  instructions  of  the  English  officers 
required;  but  it  was  surmised  that  they  meant  tyranny. 
The  commission  could  not  have  come  for  nothing.  They 
had  no  right  on  New  England  soil.  The  fleet,  for  the  pres- 
ent, proceeded  on  its  way,  and  Massachusetts  voluntarily 
contributed  a  force  of  two  hundred  men;  but  they  were 
well  aware  that  the  trouble  was  only  postponed;  and  de- 
pending on  their  charter,  which  contained  no  provision  for 
a  royal  commission,  they  were  determined  to  thwart  its 
proceedings  to  the  utmost  of  their  power.  How  far  that 
might  be,  they  would  know  when  the  time  came.  Any- 


210  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 


thing  was  better  than  surrender  to  the  prerogative, 
in  reply  to  Willoughby,  a  royalist  declared  that  prerogative 
is  as  necessary  as  the  law,  Major  William  Hawthorne,  who 
was  afterward  to  distinguish  himself  against  the  Indians, 
answered  him,  "Prerogative  is  not  above  law!"  It  was 
not,  indeed. 

Accordingly,  while  the  fleet  with  its  commissioners  was 
overawing  the  New  Netherlander,  the  Puritans  of  Boston 
Bay  wrote  and  put  forth  a  document  which  well  deserves 
reproduction,  both  for  the  terse  dignity  of  the  style,  which 
often  recalls  the  compositions  of  Lord  Verulam,  and  still 
more  for  the  courageous,  courteous,  and  yet  almost  aggres- 
sive logic  with  which  the  life  principles  of  the  Massachusetts 
colonists  are  laid  down.  It  is  a  remarkable  State  paper,  and 
so  vividly  sincere  that,  as  one  reads,  one  can  see  the  tradi- 
tional Puritan  standing  out  from  the  words  —  the  steeple 
crowned  hat,  the  severe  brow,  the  steady  eyes,  the  pointed 
beard,  the  dark  cloak  and  sad-hued  garments.  The  paper 
is  also  singular  in  that  it  remonstrates  against  a  principle, 
without  waiting  for  the  provocation  of  overt  deeds.  This 
excited  the  astonishment  of  Clarendon  and  others  in  Eng- 
land; but  their  perplexity  only  showed  that  the  men  they 
criticised  saw  further  and  straighter  than  they  did.  It  was 
for  principles,  and  against  them,  that  the  Puritans  always 
fought,  since  principles  are  the  parents  of  all  acts  and  con- 
trol them.  The  royal  commission  was,  potentially,  the  sum 
of  all  the  wrongs  from  which  New  England  suffered  during 
the  next  hundred  years,  and  though  it  had  as  yet  done  noth- 
ing, it  implied  everything. 

Whose  hand  it  was  that  penned  the  document  we  know 
not  ;  it  was  probably  the  expression  of  the  combined  views 
of  such  men  as  Mather,  Norton,  Hawthorne,  Endicott  and 
Bellingham;  it  may  have  been  revised  by  Davenport,  at  that 
time  nearly  threescore  and  ten  years  of  age,  the  type  of  the 
Calvinist  minister  of  the  period,  austere,  inflexible,  high- 
minded,  faithful.  Be  that  as  it  may,  it  certainly  voiced  the 


THE  STUARTS  AND  THE  CHARTER     211 

feeling  of  the  people,  as  the  sequel  demonstrated.  It  is 
dated  October  the  Twenty-fifth,  1664,  and  is  addressed  to 
the  king. 

"DREAD  SOVEREIGN :— The  first  undertakers  of  this 
Plantation  did  obtain  a  Patent,  wherein  is  granted  full  and 
absolute  power  of  governing  all  the  people  of  this  place,  by 
men  chosen  from  among  themselves,  and  "according  to  such 
laws  as  they  should  see  meet  to  establish.  A  royal  dona- 
tion, under  the  Great  Seal,  is  the  greatest  security  that  may 
be  had  in  human  affars.  Under  the  encouragement  and 
security  of  the  Royal  Charter  this  People  did,  at  their  own 
charges,  transport  themselves,  their  wives  and  families,  over 
the  ocean,  purchase  the  land  of  the  Natives,  and  plant  this 
Colony,  with  great  labor,  hazards,  cost,  and  difficulties;  for 
a  long  time  wrestling  with  the  wants  of  a  "Wilderness  and 
the  burdens  of  a  new  Plantation;  having  now  also  above 
thirty  years  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  Government  within 
themselves,  as  their  undoubted  right  in  the  sight  of  God 
and  Man.  To  be  governed  by  rulers  of  our  own  choosing 
and  laws  of  our  own,  is  the  fundamental  privilege  of  our 
Patent. 

"A  Commission  under  the  Great  Seal,  wherein  four  per- 
sons (one  <5f  them  our  professed  Enemy)  are  impowered  to 
receive  and  determine  all  complaints  and  appeals  according 
to  their  discretion,  subjects  us  to  the  arbitrary  power  of 
Strangers,  and  will  end  in  the  subversion  of  us  all. 

"If  these  things  go  on,  your  Subjects  will  either  be 
forced  to  seek  new  dwellings,  or  sink  under  intolerable  bur- 
dens. The  vigor  of  all  new  Endeavours  will  be  enfeebled; 
the  King  himself  will  be  a  loser  of  the  wonted  benefit  by 
customs,  exported  and  imported  from  hence  to  England, 
and  this  hopeful  Plantation  will  in  the  issue  be  ruined. 

"If  the  ami  should  be  to  gratify  some  particular  Gentle- 
men by  Livings  and  Revenues  here,  that  will  also  fail,  for 
the  poverty  of  the  People.  If  all  the  charges  of  the  whole 


212  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

Government  by  the  year  were  put  together,  and  then 
doubled  or  trebled,  it  would  not  be  counted  for  one  of 
these  Gentlemen  a  considerable  Accommodation.  To  a 
coalition  in  this  course  the  People  will  never  come;  and  it 
will  be  hard  to  find  another  people  that  will  stand  under 
any  considerable  burden  in  this  Country,  seeing  it  is  not  a 
country  where  men  can  subsist  without  hard  labor  and 
great  frugality. 

"God  knows  our  greatest  Ambition  is  to  live  a  quiet 
Life,  in  a  corner  of  the  World.  "We  came  not  into  this 
Wilderness  to  seek  great  things  to  ourselves;  and  if  any 
come  after  us  to  seek  them  here,  they  will  be  disappointed. 
We  keep  ourselves,  within  our  Line ;  a  just  dependence  upon, 
and  subjection  to,  your  Majesty,  according  to  our  Charter, 
it  is  far  from  our  Hearts  to  disacknowledge.  We  would 
gladly  do  anything  in  our  power  to  purchase  the  continu- 
ance of  your  favorable  Aspect.  But  it  is  a  great  Unhappi- 
ness  to  have  no  testimony  of  our  loyalty  offered  but  this,  to 
yield  up  our  Liberties,  which  are  far  dearer  to  us  than  OUT 
Lives,  and  which  we  have  willingly  ventured  our  Lives  and 
passed  through  many  Deaths,  to  obtain. 

"It  was  Job's  excellency,  when  he  sat  as  King  among 
his  People,  that  he  was  a  Father  to  the  Poor.  A  poor  Peo- 
ple, destitute  of  outward  Favor,  Wealth,  and  Power,  now 
cry  unto  their  lord  the  King.  May  your  Majesty  regard 
their  Cause,  and  maintain  their  Right ;  it  will  stand  among 
the  marks  of  lasting  Honor  to  after  Generations." 

Throughout  these  sentences  sounds  the  masculine  ear- 
nestness of  men  who  see  that  for  which  they  have  striven 
valiantly  and  holily  hi  danger  of  being  treacherously  rav- 
ished from  them,  and  who  are  .resolute  to  withstand  the 
ravisher  to  the  last.  It  is  no  wonder  that  documents  of 
this  tone  and  caliber  amazed  and  alarmed  the  council  in 
London,  and  made  them  ask  one  another  what  manner  of 
men  these  might  be.  It  would  have  been  well  for  England 


THE  STUARTS  AND  THE  CHARTER     213 

had  they  given  more  attentive  ear  to  their  misgivings ;  but 
their  hearts,  like  Pharaoh's,  were  hardened,  and  they  would 
not  let  the  people  go — until  the  time  was  ripe,  and  the  people 
went,  and  carried  the  spoils  with  them. 

The  secret  purpose  of  the  commission  was  to  pave  the 
way  for  the  gradual  subjection  of  the  colony,  and  to  begin 
by  inducing  them  to  let  the  governor  become  a  royal  nomi- 
nee, and  to  put  the  militia  under  the  king's  orders.  Of  the 
four  commissioners,  Nicolls  remained  in  New  York,  as  we 
have  seen;  the  three  others  landed  in  Boston  early  in  1665. 
Their  first  order  was  that  every  male  inhabitant  of  Boston 
should  assemble  and  listen  to  the  reading  of  the  message 
from  King  Charles.  These  three  gentlemen — Maverick, 
Carr  and  Cartwright — were  courtiers  and  men  of  fashion 
and  blood,  and  were  accustomed  to  regard  the  king's  wish 
as  law,  no  matter  what  might  be  on  the  other  side;  but  it 
was  now  just  thirty  years  since  the  Puritans  left  England ; 
they  had  endured  much  during  that  time,  and  had  tasted 
how  sweet  liberty  was;  and  half  of  them  were  young 
Americans,  born  on  the  soil,  who  knew  what  kings  were 
by  report  only.  Young  and  old,  speaking  through  the  as- 
sembly, which  was  in  complete  accord  with  them,  informed 
the  commissioners  that  they  would  not  comply  with  their 
demand.  "What  were  the  commissioners,  that  they  should 
venture  to  call  a  public  meeting  in  the  town  of  a  free  peo- 
ple? The  free  people  went  about  their  affairs,  and  left  the 
three  gentlemen  from  the  Court  to  stare  in  one  another's 
scandalized  faces. 

They  were  the  more  scandalized,  because  their  reception 
in  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island  had  been  different.  But 
different,  also,  had  been  the  errand  on  which  they  went 
there.  Those  two  colonies  were  the  king's  pets,  and  were 
to  have  liberty  and  all  else  they  wanted ;  Connecticut  they 
had  protected  from  the  rapacity  of  Lord  Hamilton,  and 
Rhode  Island  had  never  been  other  than  loving  and  loyal 
to  the  king.  They  had,  to  be  sure,  been  politely  bowed  out 


214  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED   STATES 

by  little  Plymouth,  the  yeomen  Independents,  who  still  pre- 
ferred, if  his  majesty  pleased,  to  conduct  their  own  house- 
hold affairs  in  their  own  way.  But  to  be  positively  and 
explicitly  rebuffed  to  their  faces,  yet  glowing  with  the  sun- 
shine of  the  royal  favor,  was  a  new  experience ;  and  Cart- 
wright,  when  he  caught  his  breath,  exclaimed,  "He  that 
will  not  attend  to  the  request  is  a  traitor!" 

The  Massachusetts  assembly  declined  to  accept  the  char- 
acterization. Since  the  king's  own  patent  expressly  relieved 
them  from  his  jurisdiction,  it  was  impossible  that  their  re- 
fusal to  meet  three  of  his  gentlemen-in-waiting  could  rightly 
be  construed  as  treason.  The  commissioners  finally  wanted 
to  know,  yes  or  no,  whether  the  colonists  meant  to  question 
the  validity  of  the  royal  commis'sion?  But  the  assembly 
would  not  thus  be  dislodged  from  the  coign  of  vantage; 
they  stuck  to  their  patent,  and  pointed  out  that  nothing 
was  therein  said  about  a  commission.  So  far  as  they  were 
concerned,  the  commission,  as  a  commission,  could  have  no 
existence.  They  recognized  nothing  but  three  somewhat 
arrogant  persons,  in  huge  wigs,  long  embroidered  waist- 
coats under  their  velvet  coats,  and  plumes  waving  from 
their  hats.  They  presented  a  glittering  and  haughty  as- 
pect, to  be  sure,  but  they  had  no  rights  in  Boston. 

At  length,  on  the  twenty-third  of  May,  matters  came  to 
a  crisis.  The  commissioners  had  given  out  that  on  that  day 
they  were  going  to  hold  a  court  to  try  a  case  in  which  the 
colony  was  to  defend  an  action  against  a  plaintiff.  This, 
of  course,  would  serve  to  indicate  that  the  commissioners 
had  power — whether  the  assembly  conceded  it  or  not — to 
control  the  internal  economy  of  the  settlement.  Betimes  in 
the  morning,  the  rather  that  it  was  a  very  pleasant  one — 
the  trees  on  the  Common  being  dressed  in  their  first  green 
leaves  since  last  year,  while  a  pleasant  westerly  breeze  sent 
the  white  clouds  drifting  seaward  over  the  blue  sky — a  great 
crowd  began  to  make  its  way  toward  the  court  house,  whose 
portals  frowned  upon  the  narrow  street,  as  if  the  stern  spirit 


THE  STUARTS  AND  THE  CHARTER     215 

of  justice  that  presided  within  had  cast  a  shadow  beneath 
them.  The  doors  were  closed,  and  the  massive  lock  which 
secured  them  gleamed  in  the  single  ray  of  spring  sunshine 
that  slanted  along  the  facade  of  the  edifice. 

It  was  a  somber  looking  throng,  as  was  ever  the  case  in 
Puritan  Boston,  where  the  hats,  cloaks  and  doublets  of  the 
people  were  made  of  dark,  coarse  materials,  not  designed  to 
flatter  the  lust  of  the  eye.  The  visages  suited  the  garments, 
wearing  a  sedate  or  severe  expression,  whether  the  cast  of 
the  features  above  the  broad  white  collars  were  broad  and 
ruddy,  or  pale  and  hollow-cheeked.  There  was  a  touch  of 
the  fanatic  in  many  of  these  countenances,  as  of  men  to 
whom  God  was  a  living  presence  in  all  their  affairs  and 
thoughts,  who  feared  His  displeasure  more  than  the  king's, 
who  believed  that  they  were  His  chosen  ones,  and  who  knew 
that  His  arm  was  mighty  to  defend.  They  were  of  kin  to 
the  men  who  stood  so  stubbornly  and  smote  so  sore  at 
Marston  Moor  and  Naseby,  and  afterward  had  not  feared  to 
drag  the  father  of  the  present  Charles  to  the  block.  Fiber 
more  unbending  than  theirs  was  never  wrought  into  the 
substance  of  our  human  nature ;  and  oppression  seemed  but 
to  harden  it. 

They  conversed  one  with  another  in  subdued  tones, 
among  which  sounded  occasionally  the  lighter  accents  of 
women's  voices ;  but  they  were  not  a  voluble  race,  and  the 
forms  of  their  speech  still  followed  in  great  measure  the 
semi-scriptural  idioms  which  had  been  so  prevalent  among 
Cromwell's  soldiers  years  before.  They  were  undemon- 
strative; but  this  very  immobility  conveyed  an  impression 
of  power  in  reserve  which  was  more  effective  than  noisy 
vehemence. 

At  length,  from  the  extremity  of  the  street,  was  heard 
the  tramp  of  horses'  hoofs,  and  the  commissioners,  bravely 
attired,  with  cavalier  boots,  and  swords  dangling  at  their 
sides,  were  seen  riding  forward,  followed  by  a  little  knot  of 
officers.  The  crowd  parted  before  them  as  they  came,  not 


2i6  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES 

sullenly,  perhaps,  but  certainly  with  no  alacrity  or  supple- 
ness of  deference.  There  was  no  love  lost  on  either  side; 
but  Cartwright,  who  wore  the  most  arrogant  front  of  the 
three,  really  feared  the  Puritans  more  than  either  of  his 
colleagues;  and  when,  seven  years  afterward,  he  was  called 
before  his  majesty's  council  to  tell  what  manner  of  men  they 
were,  his  account  of  them  was  so  formidable  that  the  coun- 
cil gave  up  the  consideration  of  the  menacing  message  they 
had  been  about  to  send,  and  instead  agreed  upon  a  letter 
of  amnesty,  as  likely  to  succeed  better  with  a  people  of  so 
"peevish  and  touchy"  a  humor. 

The  cavalcade  drew  up  before  the  door,  and  the  officials, 
dismounting,  ascended  the  steps.  Finding  it  locked,  Cart- 
wright  lifted  the  hilt  of  his  sword  and  dealt  a  blow  upon  the 
massive  panel. 

"Who  shuts  the  door  against  his  majesty's  commis- 
sioners?" cried  he  angrily.  "Where  is  the  rascal  with  the 
keys,  I  say!" 

"I  marvel  what  his  majesty's  commissioners  should  seek 
in  the  house  of  Justice,"  said  a  voice  in  the  crowd;  "since 
it  is  known  that,  when  they  go  in  by  one  door,  she  must 
needs  go  out  by  the  other." 

At  this  sally,  the  crowd  smiled  grimly,  and  the  com- 
missioners frowned  and  bit  their  lips.  Just  then  there  was 
a  movement  in  the  throng,  and  a  tall,  dignified  man  with 
a  white  beard  and  an  aspect  of  grave  authority  was  seen 
pressing  his  way  toward  the  court  house  door. 

"Here  is  the  worshipful  governor  Bellingham  himself," 
said  one  man  to  his  neighbor.  "Now  shall  we  see  the  up- 
shot of  this  matter." 

"And  God  save  Massachusetts!"  added  the  other,  de- 
voutly. 

The  chief  magistrate  of  the  colony  advanced  into  the 
little  open  space  at  the  foot  of  the  steps,  and  saluted  the 
commissioners  with  formal  courtesy. 

"I  am  sorry  ye  should  be  disappointed,  sirs,"  said  he; 


THE  STUARTS  AND  THE  CHARTER     217 

"but  I  must  tell  you  that  it  is  the  decision  of  the  worship- 
ful council  that  ye  do  not  pass  these  doors,  or  order  any 
business  of  the  court,  in  this  commonwealth.  Provision  is 
made  by  our  laws  for  the  proper  conduct  of  all  matters  of 
justice  within  our  borders,  and  it  is  not  permitted  that  any 
stranger  should  interfere  therewith." 

"Truly,  Mr.  Bellingham,"  said  Maverick,  resting  one 
hand  on  his  sword,  and  settling  his  plumed  hat  on  his  wig 
with  the  other,  "you  take  a  high  tone;  but  the  king  is  the 
king,  here  as  in  England,  and  we  bear  his  commission. 
Massachusetts  can  frame  no  laws  to  override  his  pleasure; 
and  so  we  mean  to  teach  you.  I  call  upon  all  persons  here 
present,  under  penalty  of  indictment  for  treason,  to  aid  us, 
his  majesty's  commissioners,  to  open  this  court,  or  to  break 
it  open."  His  voice  rang  out  angrily  over  the  crowd,  but 
no  one  stirred  in  answer. 

"You  forget  yourself,  sir,"  said  the  governor,  com- 
posedly. "We  here  are  loyal  to  the  king,  and  too  much 
his  friends  to  believe  that  he  would  wrong  himself  by  con- 
troverting the  charter  which  bears  the  broad  seal  affixed  by 
his  own  royal  father.  Your  claim  doth  abuse  him  more 
than  our  refusal.  But  since  you  will  not  hear  comfortable 
words,  I  must  summon  one  who  will  speak  more  bluntly." 

He  turned,  and  made  a  signal  with  his  hand.  "Let  the 
herald  stand  forth,"  said  he;  and  at  the  word,  a  broad- 
shouldered,  deep-chested  personage,  with  a  trumpet  in  one 
hand  and  a  pike  in  the  other,  stepped  into  the  circle  and 
stood  in  the  military  attitude  of  attention. 

"Hast  thou  the  proclamation  there  in  thy  doublet, 
Simon?"  demanded  his  worship. 

"Aye,  verily,  that  have  I,"  answered  Simon,  in  a  voice 
like  a  fog  horn,  "and  in  my  head  and  my  heart,  too!" 

"Send  it  forth,  then,  and  God's  blessing  go  with  it!" 
rejoined  the  chief  magistrate,  forcibly,  but  with  something 
like  a  smile  stirring  under  his  beard. 

Upon  this  Simon  the  herald  filled  his  vast  lungs  with  a 
U.S.— 10  VOL.  I. 


218  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

mighty  volume  of  New  England  air,  set  the  long  brazen 
trumpet  to  his  lips,  and  blew  such  a  blast  that  the  led 
horses  of  the  commissioners  started  and  threw  up  their 
heads,  and  the  windows  of  the  court  house  shook  with  the 
strident  vibration.  Then,  taking  the  paper  on  which  the 
proclamation  was  written,  and  holding  it  up  before  him, 
he  proceeded  to  bellow  forth  its  contents  in  such  stentorian 
wise  that  the  commissioners  might  have  heard  it,  had  they 
been  on  Boston  wharf  preparing  to  embark  for  England, 
instead  of  being  within  three  or  four  paces.  That  procla- 
mation, indeed,  was  heard  over  the  length  and  breadth  of 
New  England,  and  even  across  the  Atlantic  in  the  gilded 
chamber  of  the  king  of  Britain.  "These  fellows,"  muttered 
his  majesty,  with  a  vexed  air,  "have  the  hardihood  to  affirm 
that  we  have  no  jurisdiction  over  them.  What  shall  be 
done,  Clarendon?"  "I  have  ever  thought  well  of  them," 
the  chancellor  said,  rubbing  his  brow;  "they  are  a  sturdy 
race,  and  it  were  not  well  to  wantonly  provoke  them ;  yet  it 
is  amazing  that  they  should  show  themselves  so  froward, 
without  so  much  as  charging  the  commissioners  with  the 
least  matter  of  crimes  or  exorbitances."  Clarendon,  indeed, 
was  too  lenient  to  suit  the  royal  party,  and  this  was  one  of 
the  causes  leading  up  to  his  impeachment  a  year  or  two 
later. 

But  the  herald  was  not  troubled,  nor  was  his  voice  sub- 
dued, by  thoughts  of  either  royalty  or  royal  commissioners; 
though,  as  a  matter  of  form,  he  began  with  "In  the  name 
of  King  Charles,"  he  coupled  with  it  "by  authority  of  the 
Charter";  and  went  on  to  declare  that  the  general  court  of 
Massachusetts,  in  observance  of  their  duty  to  God,  to  the 
king,  and  to  their  constituents,  could  not  suffer  any  one  to 
abet  his  majesty's  honorable  commissioners  in  their  designs. 
There  was  no  mistaking  the  defiance,  and  neither  the  peo- 
ple nor  the  commissioners  affected  to  do  so.  The  latter 
petulantly  declared  that  "since  you  will  misconceive  our 
endeavors,  we  shall  not  lose  more  of  our  labors  upon  you"; 


THE  STUARTS  AND  THE  CHARTER     219 

and  they  departed  to  Maine,  where  they  met  with  a  less 
mortifying  reception.  The  people  were  much  pleased,  and 
made  sport  of  the  king's  gentlemen,  and  at  their  public 
meetings  they  were  addressed  in  the  same  "seditious"  vein 
by  magistrates  and  ministers.  "The  commission  is  but  a 
trial  of  our  courage :  the  Lord  will  be  with  His  people  while 
they  are  with  Him,"  said  old  Mr.  Davenport.  Endicott,  on 
the  edge  of  the  grave,  was  stanch  as  ever  for  the  popular 
liberties.  Besides,  "There  hath  been  one  revolution  against 
the  king  in  England,*'  it  was  remarked;  "perchance  there 
will  be  another  ere  long;  and  this  new  war  with  the  Nether- 
lands may  bring  more  changes  than  some  think  for."  On 
the  other  hand,  resistance  was  stimulated  by  tales  of  what 
the  gold-laced  freebooters  of  the  court  would  do,  if  they 
were  let  loose  upon  New  England.  Diplomacy,  however, 
was  combined  with  the  bolder  counsels;  there  was  hope  in 
delays,  and  correspondence  was  carried  on  with  England  to 
that  end.  Charles's  expressed  displeasure  with  their  con- 
duct was  met  with  such  replies  as  "A  just  dependence 
upon  and  allegiance  unto  your  majesty,  according  to  the 
charter,  we  have,  and  do  profess  and  practice,  and  have  by 
our  oaths  of  allegiance  to  your  majesty  confirmed;  but  to 
be  placed  upon  the  sandy  foundations  of  a  blind  obedience 
unto  that  arbitrary,  absolute,  and  unlimited  power  which 
these  gentlemen  would  impose  upon  us — who  in  their  act- 
ings have  carried  it  not  as  indifferent  persons  toward  us 
— this,  as  it  is  contrary  to  your  majesty's  gracious  expres- 
sions and  the  liberties  of  Englishmen,  so  we  can  see  no 
reason  to  submit  thereto." 

The  commissioners  were  recalled;  but  Charles  com- 
manded BelUngham,  Hawthorne,  and  a  few  others  to 
appear  before  him  in  London  and  answer  for  the  conduct 
of  the  colony.  The  general  court  met  for  prayer  and  de- 
bate; Bradstreet  thought  they  ought  to  comply;  but  Wil- 
loughby  and  others  said,  No.  A  decision  was  finally 
handed  down  declining  to  obey  the  king's  mandate. 


220  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

"We  have  already  furnished  our  views  in  writing,"  the 
court  held,  "so  that  the  ablest  persons  among  us  could  not 
declare  our  case  more  fully." 

Under  other  circumstances  this  fresh  defiance  might 
have  borne  prompt  and  serious  consequences;  but  Louis 
XIV.  conveniently  selected  the  moment  to  declare  war  on 
England;  and  Boston  commended  herself  to  the  home  gov- 
ernment by  arming  privateers  to  prey  upon  the  Canadian 
commerce,  and  by  a  timely  gift  of  a  cargo  of  masts  for  the 
English  navy.  Charles  became  so  much  interested  in  the 
ladies  of  his  court  that  he  had  less  leisure  for  the  affairs  of 
empire.  Yet  he  still  kept  New  England  in  mind;  he  be- 
lieved Massachusetts  to  be  rich  and  powerful,  and  from 
time  to  time  revolved  schemes  for  her  reduction;  and 
finally,  when  the  colonists  were  exhausted  by  the  Indian 
war,  the  privy  council  came  to  the  conclusion  that,  if  they 
were  not  to  lose  their  hold  upon  the  colony  altogether, 
"this  was  the  conjuncture  to  do  something  effectual  for 
the  better  regulation  of  that  government."  They  se- 
lected, as  their  agent,  the  best  hated  man  who  ever  set 
foot  on  Massachusetts  soil — Edward  Randolph.  His  mis- 
sion was  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  revocation  of  its  char- 
ter, and  to  undo  all  the  works  of  liberty  and  happiness 
which  the  labor  and  heroism  of  near  fifty  years  had 
achieved.  He  was  also  intrusted  by  Robert  Mason  with 
the  management  of  his  New  Hampshire  claims.  The  sec- 
ond round  in  the  battle  between  king  and  people  had 
begun. 

Randolph  was  a  remorseless,  subtle,  superserviceable 
villain,  who  lied  to  the  king  and  robbed  the  colonists, 
and  was  active  and  indefatigable  in  every  form  of  ras- 
cality. During  nine  years  he  went  to  and  fro  between 
London  and  Massachusetts,  weaving  a  web  of  mischief 
that  grew  constantly  stronger  and  more  restrictive,  until 
at  length  the  iniquitous  object  was  achieved.  His  first 
visit  to  Boston  was  in  1676;  he  stayed  but  a  few  weeks, 


THE  STUARTS  AND  THE  CHARTER     221 

and  accomplished  nothing,  but  his  stories  about  the  wealth 
and  population  of  the  colonies  stimulated  the  greed  of  his 
employers.  Envoys  were  ordered  to  come  to  London,  and 
this  time  they  were  sent,  but  with  powers  so  limited  as  to 
prevent  any  further  result  than  the  cession  of  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  Massachusetts  over  Maine  and  New  Hampshire — 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  bought  back  the  next  year. 
The  enforcement  of  the  Navigation  Acts  was  for  the  mo- 
ment postponed.  The  colonists  would  pay  duties  to  the 
king  within  the  plantation  if  he  would  let  them  import 
directly  from  the  other  countries  of  Europe.  But  Charles 
wished  to  strengthen  his  grasp  of  colonial  power,  although, 
if  possible,  with  the  assembly's  consent.  In  1678,  the  crown 
lawyers  gave  an  opinion  that  the  colony's  disregard  of  the 
Navigation  Acts  invalidated  then:  charter.  Randolph  was 
appointed  customs  collector  in  New  England,  and  it  was 
determined  to  replace  the  laws  of  Massachusetts  by  such  as 
were  not  " repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England."  And  the 
view  was  expressed  that  the  settlement  should  be  made  a 
royal  colony.  Manifestly,  the  precious  liberties  of  the  Puri- 
tans were  in  deadly  peril. 

A  synod  of  the  churches  and  a  meeting  of  the  general 
court  were  held  to  devise  defense.  To  obviate  a  repeal  of 
their  laws,  these  were  in  a  measure  remodeled  so  as  to 
bring  them  nearer  to  what  it  was  supposed  the  king  would 
require.  Almost  anything  would  be  preferable  to  giving 
up  the  right  to  legislate  for  themselves.  It  was  first 
affirmed  that  English  laws  did  not  operate  in  America, 
and  that  the  Navigation  Acts  were  despotic  because  there 
was  no  colonial  representation  in  the  English  parliament. 
And  then,  to  prove  once  more  how  far  above  all  else  they 
prized  principle,  they  passed  a  Navigation  Act  of  their  own, 
which  met  all  the  king's  stipulations.  They  would  submit 
to  the  drain  on  their  resources  and  the  hampering  of  their 
enterprise,  but  only  if  they  themselves  might  inflict  them. 
Meanwhile,  they  cultivated  to  the  utmost  the  policy  of 


222  HISTORY   OF  THE   UNITED  STATES 

delay.  Randolph  came  over  with  his  patent  as  colleotor 
in  1679,  but  though  the  patent  was  acknowledged,  he  was 
able  to  make  no  arrangements  for  conducting  the  business. 
Orders  were  sent  for  the  dispatch  of  agents  to  London  with 
unlimited  powers;  but  Massachusetts  would  not  do  it.  Par- 
liament would  not  abet  the  king  in  his  despotic  plans  be- 
yond a  certain  point;  but  he  was  at  length  able  to  dissolve 
it,  and  follow  what  counsels  he  pleased.  His  first  act  was 
to  renew  the  demand  for  plenipotentiary  envoys,  or  else  he 
would  immediately  take  steps  legally  to  evict  and  avoid 
their  charter. 

Two  agents,  Dudley  and  Richards,  were  finally  appointed 
to  go  to  the  king  and  make  the  best  terms  possible.  If  he 
were  willing  to  compound  on  a  pecuniary  basis,  which  should 
spare  the  charter,  let  it  be  done,  provided  the  colony  had  the 
means  for  it;  but,  whatever  happened,  the  charter  privi- 
leges of  the  commonwealth  were  not  to  be  surrendered. 
The  agents  had  not,  therefore,  unlimited  powers;  and  when 
Charles  discovered  this,  he  directed  them  to  obtain  such 
powers,  or  a  judicial  process  would  be  adopted.  This 
alternative  was  presented  to  Massachusetts  in  the  winter  of 
1682,  and  the  question  whether  or  not  to  yield  was  made 
the  subject  of  general  prayer,  as  well  as  of  discussion. 
There  seemed  no  possible  hope  in  resistance.  Might  it  not 
then  be  wiser  to  yield?  They  might  thus  secure  more 
lenient  treatment.  If  they  held  out  to  the  bitter  end,  the 
penalty  would  surely  be  heavier.  The  question  ultimately 
came  up  before  the  general  court  for  decision. 

It  is  probable  that  no  other  representative  body  in  the 
world  would  have  adopted  the  course  taken  by  that  of 
Massachusetts.  Certainly  since  old  Roman  times,  we  might 
seek  in  vain  for  a  verdict  which  so  disregarded  expediency 
— everything  in  the  shape  of  what  would  now  be  termed 
"practical  politics" — and  based  itself  firmly  and  unequivo- 
cally on  the  sternest  grounds  of  conscience  and  right.  It 
was  passed  after  thorough  debate,  and  with  clear  prevision 


THE  STUARTS  AND  THE  CHARTER     223 

of  what  the  result  must  be ;  but  the  magistrates  had  deter- 
mined that  to  suffer  murder  was  better  than  to  commit 
suicide;  and  this  is  the  manner  in  which  they  set  forth 
their  belief. 

"Ought  the  government  of  Massachusetts  to  submit  to 
the  pleasure  of  the  court  as  to  alteration  of  their  charter? 
Submission  would  be  an  offense  against  the  majesty  of 
heaven ;  the  religion  of  the  people  of  New  England  and  the 
court's  pleasure  cannot  consist  together.  By  submission 
Massachusetts  will  gain  nothing.  The  court  design  an 
essential  alteration,  destructive  to  the  vitals  of  the  charter. 
The  corporations  in  England  that  have  made  an  entire 
resignation  have  no  advantage  over  those  that  have  stood 
a  suit  in  law ;  but,  if  we  maintain  a  suit,  though  we  should 
be  condemned,  we  may  bring  the  matter  to  chancery  or  to 
parliament,  and  in  time  recover  all  again.  We  ought  not 
to  act  contrary  to  that  way  in  which  God  hath  owned  our 
worthy  predecessors,  who  in  1638,  when  there  was  a  quo 
warranto  against  the  charter,  durst  not  submit.  In  1664, 
they  did  not  submit  to  the  commissioners.  We,  their  suc- 
cessors, should  walk  in  their  steps,  and  so  trust  in  the  God 
of  our  fathers  that  we  shall  see  His  salvation.  Submission 
would  gratify  our  adversaries  and  grieve  our  friends.  Our 
enemies  know  it  will  sound  ill  in  the  world  for  them  to  take 
away  the  liberties  of  a  poor  people  of  God  in  the  wilderness. 
A  resignation  will  bring  slavery  upon  us  sooner  than  other- 
wise it  would  be ;  and  it  will  grieve  our  friends  in  other  colo- 
nies, whose  eyes  are  now  upon  New  England,  expecting  that 
the  people  there  will  not,  through  fear,  give  a  pernicious 
example  unto  others. 

"Blind  obedience  to  the  pleasure  of  the  court  cannot  be 
without  great  sin,  and  incurring  the  high  displeasure  of  the 
King  of  kings.  Submission  would  be  contrary  unto  that 
which  hath  been  the  unanimous  advice  of  the  ministers, 
given  after  a  solemn  day  of  prayer.  The  ministers  of  God 


224  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES 

in  New  England  have  more  of  the  spirit  of  John  the  Bap 
tist  in  them,  than  now,  when  a  storm  hath  overtaken  them, 
to  be  reeds  shaken  with  the  wind.  The  priests  were  to  be 
the  first  that  set  their  foot  in  the  waters,  and  there  to  stand 
till  all  danger  be  past.  Of  all  men,  they  should  be  an 
example  to  the  Lord's  people  of  faith,  courage,  and  con- 
stancy. Unquestionably,  if  the  blessed  Cotton,  Hooker, 
Davenport,  Mather,  Shepherd,  Mitchell,  were  now  living, 
they  would,  as  is  evident  from  their  printed  books,  say,  Do 
not  sin  in  giving  away  the  inheritance  of  your  fathers. 

"Nor  ought  we  to  submit  without  the  consent  of  the 
body  of  the  people.  But  the  freemen  and  church  members 
throughout  New  England  will  never  consent  hereunto. 
Therefore,  the  government  may  not  do  it. 

"The  civil  liberties  of  New  England  are  part  of  the  in- 
heritance of  their  fathers;  and  shall  we  give  that  inheri- 
tance away?  Is  it  objected  that  we  shall  be  exposed  to 
great  sufferings?  Better  suffer  than  sin.  It  is  better  to 
trust  the  God  of  our  fathers  than  to  put  confidence  in 
princes.  If  we  suffer  because  we  dare  not  comply  with  the 
wills  of  men  against  the  will  of  God,  we  suffer  in  a  good 
cause,  and  shall  be  accounted  martyrs  in  the  next  genera- 
tion, and  at  the  Great  Day." 

The  promulgation  of  this  paper  was  the  prelude  to  much 
calamity  in  New  England  for  many  years ;  but  how  well  it 
has  justified  itself!  Such  words  are  a  living  power,  surviv- 
ing the  lapse  of  many  generations,  and  flaming  up  fresh 
and  vigorous  above  the  decay  of  centuries.  The  patriotism 
which  they  express  is  of  more  avail  than  the  victories  of 
armies  and  of  navies,  for  these  may  be  won  in  an  ill  cause; 
but  the  dauntless  utterances  of  men  who  would  rather  per- 
ish than  fail  to  keep  faith  with  God  and  with  their  fore- 
fathers is  a  victory  for  mankind,  and  is  everlasting.  How 
poor  and  vain  hi  comparison  with  this  stern  and  sincere 
eloquence  seem  the  supple  time-service  and  euphemism  of 


THE  STUARTS  AND  THE  CHARTER     225 

vulgar  politicians  of  whose  cunning  and  fruitless  spider- 
webs  the  latter  years  have  been  so  prolific.  It  is  worth 
while  to  do  right  from  high  motives,  and  to  care  for  no 
gain  that  is  not  gained  worthily.  The  men  of  Massachu- 
setts who  lived  a  hundred  years  before  Jefferson  were 
Americans  of  a  type  as  lofty  as  any  that  have  lived  since ; 
the  work  that  was  given  them  to  do  was  so  done  that  time 
can  take  away  nothing  from  it,  nor  add  anything.  The 
soul  of  liberty  is  in  it.  It  is  easy  to  "believe  in"  our  coun- 
try now,  when  it  extends  from  ocean  to  ocean,  and  is  the 
home  of  seventy-five  million  human  beings  who  lead  the 
world  in  intelligence,  wealth,  and  the  sources  of  power. 
But  our  country  two  hundred  years  ago  was  a  strip  of  sea- 
coast  with  Indians  on  one  side  and  tyrants  on  the  other, 
inhabited  by  a  handful  of  exiles,  who  owned  little  but  their 
faith  in  God  and  their  love  for  the  freedom  of  man.  No 
lesser  men  than  they  could  have  believed  in  their  country 
then;  and  they  vindicated  their  belief  by  resisting  to  the 
last  the  mighty  and  despotic  power  of  England. 

On  November  30,  1683,  the  decision  was  made  known: 
"The  deputies  consent  not,  but  adhere  to  their  former 
bills."  A  year  afterward  the  English  court,  obstinate  in 
the  face  of  all  remonstrances,  adjudged  the  royal  charter 
of  Massachusetts  to  be  forfeited.  It  had  been  in  existence 
all  but  half  a  century.  It  was  no  more;  but  it  had  done 
its  work.  It  had  made  Massachusetts.  The  people  were 
there — the  men,  the  women  and  the  children — who  would 
hand  on  the  tradition  of  faith  and  honor  through  the  hun- 
dred years  of  darkness  and  tribulation  till  the  evil  spell  way 
broken  by  the  guns  of  Bunker  Hill.  Royal  governors  might 
come  and  go ;  but  the  people  were  growing  day  by  day,  and 
though  governors  and  governments  are  things  of  an  hour, 
the  people  are  immortal,  and  the  time  of  their  emancipation 
will  come.  By  means  of  the  charter,  the  seed  of  liberty  was 
sown  in  favorable  soil ;  it  must  lie  hid  awhile ;  but  it  would 
gather  in  obscurity  and  seeming  death  the  elements  of  new 


226  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

and  more  ample  life,  and  the  genius  of  endless  expansion. 
Great  men  and  nations  come  to  their  strength  through  great 
trials,  so  that  they  may  remember,  and  not  lightly  surrender 
what  was  so  hardly  won. 

The  king's  privy  council,  now  that  Massachusetts  lay 
naked  and  helpless  before  them,  debated  whether  she  should 
be  ruled  by  English  laws,  or  whether  the  king  should  ap- 
point governors  and  councils  over  her,  who  should  have 
license  to  work  their  wills  upon  her  irresponsibly,  except  in 
so  far  as  the  king's  private  instructions  might  direct  them. 
A  minority,  represented  by  Lord  Halifax,  who  carried  a 
wise  head  on  young  shoulders,  advised  the  former  plan; 
but  the  majority  preferred  to  flatter  Charles's  manifest 
predilection,  and  said — not  to  seem  embarrassingly  explicit 
— that  in  their  opinion  the  best  way  to  govern  a  colony  on 
the  other  side  of  an  ocean  three  thousand  miles  broad,  was 
to  govern  it — as  the  king  thought  best! 

So  now,  after  so  prolonged  and  annoying  a  delay,  the 
royal  libertine  had  his  Puritan  victim  gagged  and  bound, 
and  could  proceed  to  enjoy  her  at  his  leisure.  But  it  so 
fell  out  that  the  judgment  against  the  charter  was  received 
in  Boston  on  the  second  of  July,  1 685,  whereas  Charles  II. 
died  in  London  on  February  6th  of  the  same  year;  so  that 
he  did  not  get  his  reward  after  all:  not,  at  least,  the  kind 
of  reward  he  was  looking  for.  But,  so  far  as  Massachusetts 
was  concerned,  it  made  little  difference;  since  James  II.  was 
as  much  the  foe  of  liberty  as  was  his  predecessor,  and  had 
none  of  his  animal  amiability.  The  last  act  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts assembly  under  the  old  order  was  the  appointing 
of  a  day  of  f asting  and  prayer,  to  beseech  the  Lord  to  have 
mercy  upon  his  people. 

The  reign  of  James  II.  was  a  black  season  for  the 
northern  American  colonies;  we  can  say  no  better  of  it 
than  that  it  did  not  equal  the  bloody  horrors  which  were 
perpetrated  in  Scotland  between  1680  and  1687.  Massacres 
did  not  take  place  in  Massachusetts;  but  otherwise,  tyranny 


THE  STUARTS  AND  THE  CHARTER     227 

did  its  perfect  work.  The  most  conspicuous  and  infamous 
figures  of  the  time  are  Sir  Edmund  Andros  and  Edward 
Randolph. 

Andros,  born  in  1637,  was  thirty-seven  years  of  age 
when  he  came  to  the  colonies  as  governor  of  New  York  on 
behalf  of  the  Duke  of  York.  He  was  a  lawyer,  and  a  man 
of  energy  and  ability;  and  his  career  was  on  the  whole  suc- 
cessful, from  the  point  of  view  of  his  employers  and.  him- 
self ;  his  tenure  of  office  in  New  York  was  eight  years ;  he 
was  governor  of  New  England  from  1686  to  1689,  when 
he  was  seized  and  thrown  in  jail  by  the  people,  on  the 
outbreak  of  the  Revolution  in  England;  and  he  afterward 
governed  Virginia  for  seven  years  (1692-1698),  which  fin- 
ished his  colonial  career.  But  from  1704  to  1706  the 
island  of  Jersey,  in  the  English  Channel,  was  intrusted  to 
his  rule;  and  he  died  in  London,  where  he  was  born,  in 
1714,  being  then  seventy-seven  years  old,  not  one  day  of 
which  long  life,  so  far  as  records  inform  us,  was  marked 
by  any  act  or  thought  on  his  part  which  was  reconcilable 
with  generosity,  humanity  or  honor.  He  was  a  tyrant  and 
the  instrument  of  tyranny,  hating  human  freedom  for  its 
own  sake,  greedy  to  handle  unrighteous  spoils,  mocking  the 
sufferings  he  wrought,  triumphing  in  the  injustice  he  per- 
petrated; foul  in  his  private  life  as  he  was  wicked  in  his 
public  career.  A  far  more  intelligent  man  than  Berkeley, 
of  Virginia,  he  can,  therefore,  plead  less  excuse  than  he  for 
the  evil  and  misery  of  which  he  was  the  immediate  cause. 
But  no  earthly  punishment  overtook  him;  for  kings  find 
such  men  useful,  and  God  gives  power  to  kings  in  this 
world,  that  mankind  may  learn  the  evil  which  is  in  itself, 
and  gain  courage  and  nobility  at  last  to  cast  it  out,  and 
trample  it  under  foot. 

James  II.  was  that  most  dangerous  kind  of  despot — a 
stupid,  cold  man;  even  his  libertinism,  as  it  was  without 
shame,  so  was  it  without  passion.  In  his  public  acts  he 
plodded  sluggishly  from  detail  to  detail,  with  eyes  turned 


228  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

downward,  never  comprehending  the  larger  scope  and  rela- 
tions of  things.  He  was  incapable  of  perceiving  the  vile- 
ness,  cruelty,  or  folly  of  what  he  did;  the  almost  incredible 
murders  in  Scotland  never  for  a  moment  disturbed  his 
clammy  self-complacency.  Perhaps  no  baser  or  more 
squalid  soul  ever  wore  a  crown;  yet  no  doubt  ever  crept 
into  bis  mind  that  he  was  God's  chosen  and  anointed. 
His  pale  eyes,  staring  dully  from  his  pale  face,  saw  in 
the  royal  prerogative  the  only  visible  witness  of  God's  will 
in  the  domain  of  England;  the  atmosphere  of  him  was  cor- 
ruption and  death.  But  from  1685  to  1688  this  man  was 
absolute  master  of  England  and  her  colonies;  and  the  dis- 
ease which  he  bred  in  English  vitals  was  hardly  cured  even 
by  the  sharp  medicine  of  the  Boyne. 

By  the  time  Andros  came  to  New  England,  he  had 
learned  his  business.  The  year  after  his  appointment  to 
New  York,  he  attempted  to  assert  his  sovereignty  up  to  the 
Connecticut  River;  but  he  was  opposed  by  deputy  governor 
Leet,  a  chip  of  the  old  roundhead  block,  who  disowned  the 
patent  of  Andros  and  practically  kicked  Mm  out  of  the  col- 
ony. Connecticut  paid  for  her  temerity  when  the  owner  of 
Andros  became  king.  In  the  meanwhile  he  returned  to 
New  York,  where  he  was  not  wanted,  but  was  tolerated; 
the  settlers  there  were  a  comfortable  people,  and  prosperous 
in  the  homely  and  simple  style  natural  to  them:  they  de- 
manded civil  rights  in  good,  clear  terms,  and  cannot  be  said 
to  have  been  unduly  oppressed  at  this  time.  New  York 
for  a  while  included  the  Delaware  settlements,  and  Andros 
claimed  both  east  and  west  Jersey*  The  claim  was  con- 
tested by  Carteret  and  by  the  Quakers.  When  the  Jersey 
commerce  began  to  be  valuable,  Andros  demanded  tribute 
from  the  ships,  and  shook  the  Duke's  patent  in  the  people's 
faces.  They  replied,  rather  feebly,  with  talk  of  Magna 
Charta.  In  1682,  the  western  part  came  by  purchase  into 
Quaker  ownership,  and,  three  years  afterward,  the  eastern 
part  followed  by  patent  from  the  Duke.  To  trace  the  vicis- 


THE  STUARTS  AND  THE  CHARTER     229 

situdes  of  this  region  to  their  end,  it  was  surrendered  to 
England  in  1702,  and  united  to  New  York;  and  in  1738,  in 
compliance  with  the  desire  of  the  inhabitants,  it  became 
its  own  master.  The  settlers  were  of  composite  stock: 
Quakers,  Puritans,  and  others;  and  at  the  time  of  the 
Scotch  persecutions,  large  numbers  of  fugitive  Covenanters 
established  themselves  on  the  eastern  slopes.  The  principle 
on  which  land  was  distributed,  in  comparatively  small  par- 
cels, made  the  Jerseys  a  favorite  colony  for  honest  and 
industrious  persons  of  small  means;  and,  upon  the  whole, 
life  went  well  and  pleasantly  with  them. 

At  the  time  of  the  return  of  Andres  to  England,  in 
1682,  the  assembly  decreed  free  trade,  and  Dongan,  the 
new  Roman  Catholic  governor,  permitted  them  to  enact  a 
liberal  charter.  In  the  midst  of  the  happiness  consequent 
upon  this,  the  Duke  became  king  and  lost  no  time  in 
breaking  every  contract  that  he  had,  in  his  unanointed 
state,  entered  into.  Taxes  arbitrarily  levied,  titles  vacated 
in  order  to  obtain  renewal  fees,  and  all  the  familiar  ma- 
chinery of  official  robbery  were  put  in  operation.  But 
Dongan,  a  kindly  Kildare  Irishman — he  was  afterward 
Earl  of  Limerick — would  not  make  oppression  bitter;  and 
the  New  Yorkers  were  not  so  punctilious  about  abstract 
principles  as  were  the  New  England  men.  Favorable 
treaties  were  made  with  the  Indians;  and  the  despot's 
heel  was  not  shod  with  iron,  nor  was  it  stamped  down 
too  hard.  The  Dongan  charter,  as  it  was  called,  remained 
in  the  colony's  possession  for  over  forty  years.  The  rule  of 
Dongan  himself  continued  till  1688. 

Andros,  after  an  absence  from  the  colonies  of  five  years, 
during  which  time  a  native  but  unworthy  New  Englander, 
Joseph  Dudley,  had  acted  as  president,  came  back  to  hi* 
prey  with  freshened  appetite  in  1686.  He  was  royal  gov- 
ernor of  all  New  England.  Randolph,  an  active  subordi- 
nate under  Dudley,  had  already  destroyed  the  freedom  of 
the  press.  Andros's  power  was  practically  absolute;  he  was 


230  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

to  sustain  his  authority  by  force,  elect  his  own  creatures  to 
office,  make  such  laws  as  pleased  him,  and  introduce  episco- 
pacy. He  forbade  any  one  to  leave  the  colony  without  leave 
from  himself:  he  seized  a  meeting  house  and  made  it  into 
an  Episcopal  church,  in  spite  of  the  protests  of  the  Puritans, 
and  the  bell  was  rung  for  high-church  service  in  spite  of  the 
recalcitrant  Needham.  Duties  were  increased;  a  tax  of  a 
penny  in  the  pound  and  a  poll  tax  of  twenty  pence  were 
levied;  and  those  who  refused  payment  were  told  that  they 
had  no  privilege,  except  "not  to  be  sold  as  slaves."  Magna 
Charta  was  no  protection  against  the  abolition  of  the  right 
of  Habeas  Corpus:  "Do  not  think  the  laws  of  England 
follow  you  to  the  ends  of  the  earth!"  Juries  were  packed, 
and  Dudley,  to  avoid  all  mistakes,  told  them  what  verdicts 
to  render.  Randolph  issued  new  grants  for  properties,  and 
extorted  grievous  fees,  declaring  all  deeds  under  the  charter 
void,  and  those  from  Indians,  or  "from  Adam,"  worthless. 
West,  the  secretary,  increased  probate  duties  twenty-fold. 
"When  Danforth  complained  that  the  condition  of  the  colo- 
nists was  little  short  of  slavery,  and  Increase  Mather  added 
that  no  man  could  call  anything  his  own,  they  got  for  an- 
swer that  "it  is  not  for  his  majesty's  interest  that  you 
should  thrive."  In  the  history  of  Massachusetts,  there  is 
no  darker  day  than  this. 

The  great  New  England  romancer,  writing  of  this 
period  a  hundred  and  seventy  years  later,  draws  a  vivid 
and  memorable  picture  of  the  people  and  their  oppressors. 
"The  roll  of  the  drum,"  he  says,  "had  been  approaching 
through  Cornhill,  louder  and  deeper,  till  with  reverbera- 
tions from  house  to  house,  and  the  regular  tramp  of  mar- 
tial footsteps,  it  burst  into  the  street.  A  double  rank  of 
soldiers  made  their  appearance,  occupying  the  whole  breadth 
of  the  passage,  with  shouldered  matchlocks,  and  matches 
burning,  so  as  to  present  a  row  of  fires  in  the  dusk.  Their 
steady  march  was  like  the  progress  of  a  machine,  that 
would  roll  irresistibly  over  everything  in  its  way.  Next, 


THE  STUARTS  AND  THE  CHARTER     231 

moving  slowly,  with  a  confused  clatter  of  hoofs  on  the 
pavement,  rode  a  party  of  mounted  gentlemen,  the  cen- 
tral figure  being  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  elderly,  but  erect 
and  soldier-like.  Those  around  him  were  his  favorite  coun- 
cilors, and  the  bitterest  foes  of  New  England.  At  his  right 
rode  Edward  Randolph,  our  arch-enemy,  that  'blasted 
wretch,'  as  Mather  calls  him,  who  achieved  the  downfall 
of  our  ancient  goyernment,  and  was  followed  with  a  sensi- 
ble curse,  through  life  and  to  his  grave.  On  the  other  side 
was  Bullivant,  scattering  jests  and  mockery  as  he  rode 
along.  Dudley  came  behind,  with  a  downcast  look,  dread- 
ing, as  well  he  might,  to  meet  the  indignant  gaze  of  the 
people,  who  beheld  him,  their  only  countryman  by  birth, 
among  the  oppressors  of  his  native  land.  The  captain  of 
a  frigate  in  the  harbor,  and  two  or  three  civil  officers  under 
the  Crown,  were  also  there.  But  the  figure  that  most  at- 
tracted the  public  eye,  and  stirred  up  the  deepest  feeling, 
was  the  Episcopal  clergyman  of  King's  Chapel,  riding 
haughtily  among  the  magistrates  in  his  priestly  vestments, 
the  fitting  representative  of  prelacy  and  persecution,  the 
union  of  church  and  state,  and  all  those  abominations 
which  had  driven  the  Puritans  to  the  wilderness.  Another 
guard  of  soldiers,  in  double  rank,  brought  up  the  rear. 
The  whole  scene  was  a  picture  of  the  condition  of  New 
England,  and  its  moral,  the  deformity  of  any  government 
that  does  not  grow  out  of  the  nature  of  things  and  the 
character  of  the  people.  On  one  side  the  religious  multi- 
tude, with  their  sad  visages  and  dark  attire,  and,  on  the 
other,  the  group  of  despotic  rulers,  with  the  high  church- 
man in  the  midst,  and  here  and  there  a  crucifix  at  their 
bosoms,  all  magnificently  clad,  flushed  with  wine,  proud  of 
unjust  authority,  and  scoffing  at  the  universal  groan.  And 
the  mercenary  soldiers,  waiting  but  the  word  to  deluge  the 
street  with  blood,  showed  the  only  means  by  which  obedi- 
ence could  be  secured.'* 

Education  was  temporarily  paralyzed,  and  the  right  of 


232  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

franchise  was  rendered  nugatory  by  the  order  that  oaths 
must  be  taken  with  the  hand  on  the  Bible — a  "popish"  cere- 
mony which  the  Puritans  would  not  undergo.  The  town 
meetings,  which  were  the  essence  of  New  Englandism,  were 
forbidden  except  for  the  election  of  local  officers,  and  ballot 
voting  was  stopped:  "There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  town 
in  the  whole  country,"  Andros  declared.  Verily,  it  was  "a 
time  when  New  England  groaned  under  the  actual  pressure 
of  heavier  wrongs  than  those  threatened  ones  which  brought 
on  the  Revolution."  Yet  the  spirit  of  the  people  was  not 
crushed ;  their  leaders  did  not  desert  them ;  in  private  meet- 
ings they  kept  their  faith  and  hope  alive ;  the  ministers  told 
them  that  "God  would  yet  be  exalted  among  the  heathen"; 
and  one  at  least  among  them,  Willard,  significantly  bade 
them  take  note  that  they  "had  not  yet  resisted  unto  blood, 
warring  against  sin!" 

Boston  was  Andros's  headquarters,  and  in  1688  was 
made  the  capital  of  the  whole  region  along  the  coast  from 
the  French  possessions  in  the  north  to  Maryland  in  the 
south.  But  Andros  had  not  yet  received  the  submission 
of  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut.  Walter  Clarke  was  the 
governor  of  the  former  colony  in  1687,  when,  in  the  dead  of 
winter,  Andros  appeared  there  and  ordered  the  charter  to 
be  given  up.  Roger  Williams  had  died  three  years  before. 
Clarke  tried  to  temporize,  and  asked  that  the  surrender  be 
postponed  till  a  fitter  season.  But  Andros  dissolved  the 
government  summarily,  and  broke  its  seal ;  and  it  is  not  on 
record  that  the  Rhode  Islanders  offered  any  visible  resist- 
ance to  the  outrage.  From  Rhode  Island  Andros,  with  his 
retinue  and  soldiers,  proceeded  to  Hartford,  which  had  lost 
its  Winthrop  longer  ago  than  the  former  its  Williams. 
Governor  Dongan  of  New  York  had  warned  Connecticut 
of  what  was  to  come,  and  had  counseled  them  to  submit. 
Three  writs  of  quo  warranto  were  issued,  one  upon  another, 
and  the  colony  finally  petitioned  the  king  to  be  permitted  to 
retain  its  liberties;  but  in  any  case  to  be  merged  rather  in 


THE  STUARTS  AND  THE  CHARTER     233 

Massachusetts  than  in  New  York.  It  was  on  the  last  Jay 
of  October,  1687;  Andros  entered  the  assembly  hall,  where 
the  assembly  was  then  in  session,  with  Governor  Treat 
presiding.  The  scene  which  followed  has  entered  into  the 
domain  of  legend;  but  there  is  nothing  miraculous  in  it;  a 
deed  which  depended  for  its  success  upon  the  secrecy  with 
which  it  was  accomplished  would  naturally  be  lacking  in 
documentary  confirmation.  Upon  Andres's  entrance,  hun- 
gry for  the  charter,  Treat  opposed  him,  and  entered  upon 
a  defense  of  the  right  of  the  colony  to  retain  the  ancient 
and  honorable  document,  hallowed  as  it  was  by  associa- 
tions which  endeared  it  to  its  possessors,  aside  from  its 
political  value.  Andros,  of  course,  would  not  yield;  the 
only  thing  that  such  men  ever  yield  to  is  superior  force; 
but  force  being  on  his  side,  he  entertained  no  thought  of 
departing  from  his  purpose.  The  dispute  was  maintained 
until  so  late  in  the  afternoon  that  candles  must  be  lighted ; 
some  were  fixed  in  sconces  round  the  walls,  and  there  were 
others  on  the  table,  where  also  lay  the  charter,  with  its 
engrossed  text,  and  its  broad  seal.  The  assemblymen,  as 
the  debate  seemed  to  approach  its  climax,  left  their  seats 
and  crowded  round  the  table,  where  stood  on  one  side 
the  royal  governor,  in  his  scarlet  coat  laced  with  gold,  his 
heavy  but  sharp-featured  countenance  flushed  with  irrita- 
tion, one  hand  on  the  hilt  of  his  sword,  the  other  stretched 
out  toward  the  coveted  document : — on  the  other,  the  gov- 
ernor chosen  by  the  people,  in  plain  black,  with  a  plain 
white  collar  turned  down  over  his  doublet,  his  eyes  dark 
with  emotion,  his  voice  vibrating  hoarsely  as  he  pleaded 
with  the  licensed  highwayman  of  England.  Around,  is  the 
ring  of  strong  visages,  rustic  but  brainy,  frowning,  agitated, 
eager,  angry;  and  the  flame  of  the  candles  flickering  in  their 
heavily-drawn  breath. 

Suddenly  and  simultaneously,  by  a  preconcerted  signal, 
the  lights  are  out,  and  the  black  darkness  has  swallowed 
up  the  scene.  In  the  momentary  silence  of  astonishment, 


234  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

Andros  feels  himself  violently  shoved  aside ;  the  hand  with 
which  he  would  draw  his  sword  is  in  an  iron  grasp,  as 
heavy  as  that  which  he  has  laid  upon  colonial  freedom. 
There  is  a  surging  of  unseen  men  about  him,  the  shuffling 
of  feet,  vague  outcries:  he  knows  not  what  is  to  come: 
death,  perhaps.  Is  Sir  Edmund  afraid?  "We  have  no  infor- 
mation as  to  the  physical  courage  of  the  man,  further  than 
that  in  1675  he  had  been  frightened  into  submission  by  the 
farmers  and  fishermen  at  Fort  Saybrook.  But  he  need  not 
have  been  a  coward  to  feel  the  blood  rush  to  his  heart  dur- 
ing those  few  blind  moments.  Men  of  such  lives  as  his 
are  always  ready  to  suspect  assassination. 

But  assassination  is  not  an  American  method  of  righting 
wrong.  Anon  the  steel  had  struck  the  flint,  and  the  spark 
had  caught  the  tinder,  and  one  after  another  the  candles 
were  alight  once  more.  All  stared  at  one  another:  what 
had  happened?  Andros,  his  face  mottled  with  pallor,  was 
pulling  himself  together,  and  striving  to  resume  the  arro- 
gant insolence  of  his  customary  bearing.  He  opens  his 
mouth  to  speak,  but  only  a  husky  murmur  replaces  the 
harsh  stridency  of  his  usual  utterance.  ""What  devilish 
foolery  is  this — "  But  ere  he  can  get  further,  some  bucolic 
statesman  brings  his  massive  palm  down  on  the  table  with  a 
bang  that  makes  the  oaken  plank  crack,  and  thunders  out 
— "The  charter!  Where's  our  charter?" 

"Where,  indeed?  That  is  one  of  those  historic  secrets 
which  will  probably  never  be  decided  one  way  or  the  other. 
"There  is  no  contemporary  record  of  this  event."  No:  but, 
somehow  or  other,  one  hears  of  Yankee  Captain  Joe  Wads- 
worth,  with  the  imaginative  audacity  and  promptness  of 
resource  of  his  race,  snatching  the  parchment  from  the  table 
in  the  midst  of  the  groping  panic,  and  slipping  out  through 
the  crowd:  he  has  passed  the  door  and  is  inhaling  with 
grateful  lungs  the  fresh  coolness  of  the  cloudy  October 
night.  Has  any  one  seen  him  go?  Did  any  one  know 
what  he  did? — iTone  who  will  reveal  it.  He  is  astride 


THE  STUARTS  AND  THE  CHARTER     235 

his  mare,  and  they  are  off  toward  the  old  farm,  where  his 
boyhood  was  spent,  and  where  stands  the  great  hollow  oak 
which,  thirty  years  ago,  Captain  Joe  used  to  canvass  for 
woodpeckers'  nests  and  squirrel  hordes.  He  hart,  thought, 
in  those  boyish  days,  what  a  good  hiding-place  the  old  tree 
would  make;  and  the  thought  had  flashed  back  into  his 
mind  while  he  listened  to  that  fight  for  the  charter  to-day. 
It  did  not  take  him  long  to  lay  his  plot,  and  to  agree  with 
his  few  fellow-conspirators.  Sir  Edmund  can  snatch  the 
government,  and  scrawl  Finis  at  the  foot  of  the  Connecticut 
records ;  but  that  charter  he  shall  never  have,  nor  shall  any 
man  again  behold  it,  until  years  have  passed  away,  and 
Andros  has  vanished  forever  from  New  England. 

Meanwhile,  he  returned  to  Boston,  there,  for  a  season,  to 
make  "the  wicked  walk  on  every  side,  and  the  vilest  to  be 
exalted."  Then  came  that  famous  April  day  of  1689;  and, 
following,  event  after  event,  one  storming  upon  another's 
heels,  as  the  people  rose  from  their  long  bondage,  and  hurled 
"their  oppressors  down.  The  bearer  of  the  news  that  Wil- 
liam of  Orange  had  landed  in  England,  was  imprisoned,  but 
it  was  too  late.  Andros  ordered  his  soldiers  under  arms; 
but  the  commander  of  the  frigate  had  been  taken  prisoner 
by  the  Boston  ship-carpenters;  the  sheriff  was  arrested; 
hundreds  of  determined  men  surrounded  the  regimental 
headquarters;  the  major  resisted  in  vain;  the  colors  and 
drums  were  theirs ;  a  vast  throng  at  the  town  house  greeted 
the  venerable  Bradstreet;  the  insurrection  was  proclaimed, 
and  Andros  and  his  wretched  followers,  flying  to  the  frigate, 
were  seized  and  cast  into  prison.  "Down  with  Andros  and 
Randolph!"  was  the  cry;  and  "The  old  charter  once  more!" 
It  was  a  hundred  years  to  a  day  before  that  shot  fired  at 
Concord  and  heard  round  the  world. 


CHAPTER   NINTH 

THE  NEW  LEAF,  AND    THE  BLOT  ON  IT 

OPULAR  liberty  is  one  thing;  political  inde- 
pendence is  another.  The  latter  cannot  be 
securely  and  lastingly  established  until  the 
former  has  fitted  the  nation  to  use  it  intel- 
ligently. When  the  component  individuals 
have  thrown  off  the  bondage  of  superstition 
and  of  formulas,  their  next  step  must  be,  as  an  organiza- 
tion, to  abrogate  external  subordination  to  others,  and,  like 
a  son  come  of  age,  to  begin  life  on  a  basis  and  with  an. 
aim  of  their  own. 

But  such  movements  are  organic,  and  chronologically 
slow ;  so  that  we  do  not  comprehend  them  until  historical 
perspective  shows  them  to  us  in  their  mass  and  tendency. 
They  are  thus  protected  against  their  enemies,  who,  if  they 
knew  the  significance  of  the  helpless  seed,  would  destroy  it 
before  it  could  become  the  invincible  and  abounding  tree. 
Great  human  revolutions  make  themselves  felt,  at  first,  as 
a  trifling  and  unreasonable  annoyance :  a  crumpling  in  the 
roseleaf  bed  of  the  orthodox  and  usual.  They  are  brushed 
petulantly  aside  and  the  sleeper  composes  himself  to  rest  once 
more.  But  inasmuch  as  there  was  vital  truth  as  the  predis- 
posing cause  of  the  annoyance,  it  cannot  thus  be  disposed  of; 
it  spreads  and  multiplies.  Had  its  opponents  understood  its 
meaning,  they  would  have  humored  it  into  inoffensiveness; 
but  the  means  they  adopt  to  extirpate  it  are  the  sure  way  to 
develop  it.  Truth  can  no  more  be  smothered  by  intolerance, 
(236) 


THE  NEW  LEAF,  AND  THE  BLOT  ON  IT        237 

than  a  sown  field  can  be  rendered  unproductive  by  covering 
it  with  manure. 

When  Christ  came,  the  common  people  had  no  recog- 
nized existence  except  as  a  common  basis  on  which  aristo- 
cratic institutions  might  rest.  That  they  could  have  rights 
was  as  little  conceived  as  that  inanimate  sticks  and  stones 
could  have  them ;  to  enfranchise  them — to  surrender  to  them 
the  reins  of  government — such  an  idea  the  veriest  madness 
would  have  started  from.  Philosophy  was  blind  to  it ;  relig- 
ion was  abhorrent  to  it ;  the  common  people  themselves  were 
as  far  from  entertaining  it  as  cattle  in  the  fields  are  to-day. 
Christ's  sayings — Love  one  another — Do  as  ye  would  be  done 
by — struck  at  the  root  of  all  arbitrary  power,  and  furnished 
the  clew  to  all  possible  emancipations ;  but  their  infinite  mean- 
ing has  even  yet  been  grasped  but  partially.  A  thousand 
years  are  but  as  yesterday  in  the  counsels  of  the  Lord.  The 
early  Christians  were  indeed  a  democracy;  but  they  were 
common  people  to  begin  with,  and  the  law  of  love  sug- 
gested to  them  no  thought  of  altering  their  condition  in 
that  respect.  The  only  liberty  they  dreamed  of  claiming 
was  liberty  to  die  for  their  faith;  and  that  was  accorded 
to  them  in  full  measure.  Indeed,  an  apprenticeship,  the 
years  of  which  were  centuries,  must  be  served  before  they 
could  be  qualified  to  realize  even  that  they  could  become 
the  trustees  of  power. 

Their  simple  priesthood,  beginning  by  sheltering  them 
from  physical  violence,  ended  by  subjecting  them  to  a  yet 
more  enslaving  spiritual  tyranny.  Philosophers  could  frame 
imaginative  theories  of  human  liberty ;  but  the  people  could 
be  helped  only  from  within  themselves.  Wiclif,  giving 
them  the  Bible  in  a  living  language,  and  intimating  that 
force  was  not  necessarily  right,  began  then*  education;  and 
Luther,  in  his  dogma  of  justification  by  faith  alone,  forged 
a  tremendous  weapon  in  their  behalf.  Beggars  could  have 
faith ;  princes  and  prelates  might  lack  it ;  of  what  avail  was 
it  to  gain  the  whole  world  if  the  soul  must  be  lost  at  last? 


238 


The  reasonings  and  discussions  to  which  his  dogma  gave  rise 
called  into  existence  two  world-covering  armies  to  fight  for 
and  against  it.  Peace  has  not  been  declared  betwe?n  them 
yet;  but  there  has  long  ceased  to  be  any  question  as  to  who 
shall  have  the  victory. 

When  the  battle  began,  however,  the  other  side  had  the 
stronger  battalions,  and  there  would  have  been  little  chance 
for  liberty,  but  for  the  timely  revelation  of  the  western  conti- 
nent. And,  inevitably,  it  was  the  people  who  went,  and  the 
aristocrats  who  stayed  behind ;  because  the  new  idea  favored 
the  former  and  menaced  the  latter.  Inevitably,  too,  it  was 
the  man  who  had  the  future  in  him  that  was  the  exile,  and 
the  man  of  the  past  who  drove  him  forth.  And  whenever 
we  find  a  man  of  the  aristocratic  order  emigrating  to  the 
colonies,  we  find  in  him  the  same  love  of  liberty  which  ani- 
mates his  plebeian  companion,  graced  by  a  motive  even 
higher,  because  opposed  to  his  inherited  interests  and  ad- 
vantages. Thus  the  refuge  of  the  oppressed  became  by 
the  nature  of  things  the  citadel  of  the  purest  and  sound- 
est civilization. 

Luther,  Calvin,  and  Jonathan  Edwards  were  in  the  line 
of  succession  one  from  the  other;  each  defined  the  truth 
more  nearly  than  his  predecessor,  but  left  it  still  in  the  rough. 
The  whole  truth  is  never  revealed  at  one  time,  but  so  much 
only  as  may  forge  a  sword  for  the  immediate  combat.  Faith 
alone  was  a  good  blade  for  the  first  downright  strokes  of  the 
battle ;  predestination  had  a  finer  edge ;  and  Edwards's  dia- 
letical  subtleties  on  the  freedom  of  the  will  sharpen  logic  to 
so  fine  a  point  that  we  begin  to  perceive  that  not  logic  but 
love  is  the  true  weapon  of  the  Christian :  the  mystery  of  God 
is  not  revealed  in  syllogisms.  But  each  fresh  discrimination 
was  useful  in  its  place  and  time,  and  had  to  exist  in  order  to 
prepare  the  way  for  its  successor.  The  Puritans  would  have 
been  less  stubborn  without  their  background  of  spiritual 
damnation.  That  awful  conscience  of  theirs  would  have 
faltered  without  its  lake  of  fire  and  brimstone  to  keep  out 


THE  NEW  LEAF,  AND  THE  BLOT  ON  IT        239 

% 

of;  and  if  it  had  faltered,  the  American  nation  would  have 
been  strangled  in  its  cradle. 

America,  then,  having  no  permanent  attractions  as  a 
residence  for  any  of  the  upper  classes  of  European  society, 
became  the  home  of  the  common  people,  in  whom  alone  the 
doctrine  of  liberty  could  find  a  safe  anchorage,  because  in 
them  alone  did  the  need  for  it  abide.  The  philosophy,  the 
religion,  the  tolerance,  the  civil  forms,  which  are  broad 
enough  to  suit  the  common  people,  must  be  nearly  as 
broad  as  truth  itself,  and  therefore  as  unconquerable. 
But  the  broader  they  appear,  the  more  must  they  be  offen- 
sive to  the  orthodox  and  conventional,  who  by  the  instinct 
of  self-preservation  will  be  impelled  to  attack  them.  There 
was  never  a  more  obvious  chain  of  cause  and  effect  than 
that  which  is  revealed  in  the  history  of  the  United  States; 
and  having  shown  the  conditions  which  led  to  the  planting 
in  the  wilderness  of  the  elements  which  constitute  our  pres- 
ent commonwealth,  we  shall  now  proceed  to  trace  the  man- 
ner in  which  they  came  to  be  wrought  into  a  united  whole. 
They  were  as  yet  mainly  unconscious  of  one  another;  the 
opportunity  for  mutual  knowledge  had  not  yet  been  pre- 
sented, nor  had  the  causes  conducive  to  crystallization  been 
introduced.  Oppression  had  awakened  the  colonists  to  the 
value  of  their  religious  and  civic  principles ;  something  more 
than  oppression  was  requisite  to  mold  them  into  independ- 
ent and  homogeneous  form.  This  was  afforded,  during  the 
next  eighty  years,  by  their  increase  in  numbers,  wealth, 
familiarity  with  their  country,  and  in  the  facilities  for  inter- 
communication;  and  also,  coincidently,  by  the  French  and 
Indian  wars,  which  apprised  them  of  their  strength,  trained 
them  in  arms,  created  the  comradeship  which  arises  from 
common  dangers  and  aims,  and  developed  vast  tracts  of 
land  which  had  otherwise  been  unknown.  A  country 
which  has  been  fought  for,  on  whose  soil  blood  has  been 
shed,  becomes  dear  to  its  inhabitants;  and  the  heroism 
of  the  Revolution  gathered  heart  and  perseverance  from 


240  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  traditions  and  the  graves  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Inter* 
colonial  wars. 

The  English  Revolution  benefited  the  colonies,  though  to 
a  less  extent  than  might  have  been  expected.  William  of 
Orange  was  the  logical  consequence,  by  reaction,  of  James 
II.  The  latter  had  so  corrupted  and  confused  the  kingdom, 
that  "William,  whose  connection  with  England  arose  from 
his  marriage  with  Mary,  James's  daughter,  was  invited  to 
usurp  the  throne  by  Tories,  Whigs  and  Presbyterians — each 
party  from  a  motive  of  its  own.  The  people  were  not  ap- 
pealed to,  but  they  acquiesced.  The  Roman  Catholics  were 
discriminated  against,  and  the  nonconformists  were  not 
requited  for  their  services;  but  out  of  many  minor  injustices 
and  wrongs,  a  condition  better  than  anything  which  had  pre- 
ceded it  was  soon  discernible.  The  principle  was  established 
that  royal  power  was  not  absolute,  nor  self -continuing;  it 
could  be  created  only  by  the  representatives  of  the  people, 
who  could  take  it  away  again  if  its  trustee  were  guilty  of 
breach  of  contract.  The  dynastic  theory  was  disallowed; 
kings  were  to  come  by  election,  not  succession.  The  nobility 
were  recognized  as  the  medium  between  the  king  and  the 
people,  but  not  before  they  had  conceded  to  the  commons 
the  right  to  elect  a  king  for  life ;  and  presently  there  came 
into  existence  a  new  power — that  of  the  commercial  classes, 
the  moneyed  interest,  which,  in  return  for  loans  to  govern- 
ment, received  political  consideration.  Ownership  of  land 
ceased  to  be  the  sole  condition  on  which  a  candidate  could 
appeal  to  the  electors ;  and  merchants  were  raised  to  a  posi- 
tion where  they  could  control  national  policies.  Merchants 
might  not  be  wiser  or  less  selfish  than  the  aristocracy;  but 
at  all  events  they  were  of  the  people,  and  the  more  widely 
power  is  diffused,  the  less  likely  is  any  class  to  be  oppressed. 
It  was  no  longer  possible  for  freemen  to  be  ruled  otherwise 
than  by  governments  of  their  own  making,  and  subject  to 
their  approval.  Freedom  of  the  press,  which  means  liberty 
to  criticise  all  state  and  social  procedure,  was  established, 


THE  NEW  LEAF,  AND  THE  BLOT  ON  IT        241 

and  public  opinion,  instead  of  being  crushed,  was  consulted. 
The  aristocracy  could  retain  its  ascendency  only  by  permit- 
ting more  weight  to  the  middle  class,  whose  influence  was 
therefore  bound  gradually  to  increase.  Popular  legislatures 
were  the  final  arbiters ;  and  the  advantages  which  the  En- 
glish had  obtained  would  naturally  be  imparted  to  the  col- 
onies, which,  in  addition,  were  unhampered  by  the  relics  of 
decaying  systems  which  still  impeded  the  old  country. 

William  cared  little  for  England,  nor  were  the  English  in 
love  with  him;  but  he  was  the  most  far-seeing  statesman  of 
his  day,  and  his  effect  was  liberalizing  and  beneficial.  He 
kept  Louis  XIV.  from  working  the  mischief  that  he  desired, 
and  prevented  the  disturbance  of  political  equilibrium  which 
was  threatened  by  the  proposed  successor  to  the  extinct 
Hapsburg  dynasty  on  the  Spanish  throne.  William  was 
outwardly  cold  and  dry,  but  there  was  fire  within  him,  if 
you  would  apply  friction  enough.  He  was  under  no  illu- 
sions; he  perfectly  understood  why  he  was  wanted  in  Eng- 
land; and  for  his  part,  he  accepted  the  throne  in  order  to 
be  able  to  check  Louis  in  his  designs  upon  the  liberties  of 
Holland.  In  defending  his  countrymen  he  defended  all 
others  in  Europe,  whose  freedom  was  endangered. 

But  if  William's  designs  were  large,  they  were  also,  and 
partly  for  that  reason,  unjust  hi  particulars.  He  was  at 
war  with  France ;  France  held  possessions  hi  America ;  and 
it  was  necessary  to  carry  on  war  against  her  there  as  well  as 
in  Europe.  The  colonists,  then,  should  be  made  to  assist  in 
the  operations;  they  must  furnish  men,  forts,  and,  to  some 
extent  at  least,  supplies.  It  was  easy  to  reach  this  deter- 
mination, but  difficult  to  enforce  it  under  the  circumstances. 
The  various  colonies  lacked  the  homogeneity  which  was 
desirable  to  secure  co-operative  action  from  them ;  some  of 
them  were  royal  provinces,  some  proprietary,  some  were  in 
an  anomalous  state,  or  practically  without  any  recognizable 
form  of  government  whatever.  Each  had  its  separate  inter- 
ests to  regard,  and  could  not  be  brought  to  perceive  that 

U.S.— 11  VOL,  I. 


242  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

what  was  the  concern  of  one  must  in  the  end  be  the  concern 
of  all.  But  the  greatest  difficulty  was  to  secure  obedience  of 
orders  after  they  had  been  promulgated ;  the  colonial  legis- 
latures pleaded  all  manner  of  rights  and  privileges,  under 
Magna  Charta  and  other  charters;  they  claimed  the  privi- 
leges of  Englishmen,  and  they  stood  upon  their  "natural" 
rights  as  discoverers  and  inhabitants  of  a  new  country. 
They  were  spread  over  a  vast  extent  of  territory,  so  that 
in  many  cases  a  journey  of  weeks  would  be  required, 
through  pathless  forests,  across  unbridged  rivers,  over 
difficult  mountains,  by  swamps  and  morasses — in  order 
to  carry  information  of  the  commands  of  the  govern- 
ment to  no  more  than  a  score  or  a  hundred  of  persons. 
And  then  these  persons  would  look  around  at  the  miles  of 
unconquerable  nature  stretching  out  on  every  side;  and  they 
would  reflect  upon  the  thousands  of  leagues  of  salt  water 
that  parted  them  from  the  king  who  was  the  source  of  these 
unwelcome  orders;  and,  finally,  they  would  glance  at  the 
travel-stained  and  weary  envoy  with  a  pitying  smile,  and 
offer  him  food  and  drink  and  a  bed — but  not  obedience. 
The  colonists  had  imagination,  when  they  cared  to  exercise 
it;  but  not  imagination  of  the  kind  to  bring  vividly  home  to 
them  the  waving  of  a  royal  scepter  across  the  broad  Atlantic. 
Another  cause  of  embarrassment  to  the  king  was  the 
reluctance  of  Parliament  to  pass  laws  inhibiting  the  reason- 
able liberties  of  the  colonies.  The  influence  of  the  Lords 
somewhat  preponderated,  because  they  controlled  many  of 
the  elections  to  the  Commons ;  but  neither  branch  was  dis- 
posed to  increase  the  power  of  the  king,  and  they  were, 
besides,  split  by  internal  factions.  It  was  not  until  the  mer- 
cantile interest  got  into  the  saddle  that  Parliament  saw  the 
expediency  of  restricting  the  productive  and  commercial 
freedom  of  the  colonies,  and  the  necessity,  in  order  to 
secure  these  ends,  of  diminishing  their  legislative  license. 
Meanwhile,  William  tried  more  than  one  device  of  his  own. 
First,  by  dint  of  the  prerogative,  he  ordered  that  each  colony 


THE  NEW  LEAF,  AND  THE  BLOT  ON  IT        243 

north  of  Carolina  should  appoint  a  fixed  quota  of  men  and 
money  for  the  defense  of  New  York  against  the  common 
enemy;  this  order  it  was  found  impossible  to  carry  out. 
Next,  he  caused  a  board  of  trade  to  be  appointed  in  1696 
to  inquire  into  the  condition  of  the  colonies,  and  as  to  what 
should  be  done  about  them;  and  after  a  year,  this  board 
reported  that  in  their  opinion  what  was  wanted  was  a  cap- 
tain-general to  exercise  a  sort  of  military  dictatorship  over 
all  the  North  American  provinces.  But  the  ministry  held 
this  plan  to  be  imprudent,  and  it  fell  through.  At  the  same 
time,  William  Penn  worked  out  a  scheme  truly  statesman- 
like, proposing  an  annual  congress  of  two  delegates  from 
each  province  to  devise  ways  and  means,  which  they  could 
more  intelligently  do  than  could  any  council  or  board  in 
England.  The  plan  was  advocated  by  Charles  Davenant,  a 
writer  on  political  economy,  who  observed  that  the  stronger 
the  colonies  became,  the  more  profitable  to  England  would 
they  be;  only  despotism  could  drive  them  to  rebellion;  and 
innovations  in  their  charters  would  be  prejudicial  to  the 
king's  power.  But  this  also  was  rejected;  and  finally  the 
conduct  of  necessary  measures  was  given  to  "  royal  instruc- 
tions," that  is,  to  the  king;  but  to  the  king  subject  to  the 
usual  parliamentary  restraint.  And  none  of  the  better  class 
of  Englishmen  wished  to  tyrannize  over  their  fellow  English- 
men across  the  sea. 

Under  this  arrangement,  the  appointment  of  judges  was 
taken  from  the  people;  Habeas  Corpus  was  refused,  or 
permitted  as  a  favor;  censorship  of  the  press  was  revived; 
license  to  preach  except  as  granted  by  a  bishop  was  denied; 
charters  were  withheld  from  dissenters ;  slavery  was  encour- 
aged ;  and  the  colonies  not  as  yet  under  royal  control  were 
told  that  the  common  weal  demanded  that  they  should  be 
placed  in  the  same  condition  of  dependency  as  those  who 
were.  But  William  died  in  1702,  before  this  arrangement 
could  be  carried  out.  Queen  Anne,  however,  listened  to 
alarmist  reports  of  the  unruly  and  disaffected  condition  of 


244  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  colonies,  and  allowed  a  bill  for  their  "better  regulation" 
to  be  introduced.  It  was  now  that  the  mercantile  interest 
began  to  show  its  power. 

The  old  argument,  that  every  nation  may  claim  the  ser- 
vices of  its  own  subjects,  wherever  they  are,  was  revived ; 
and  that  England  ought  to  be  the  sole  buyer  and  seller  of 
American  trade.  All  the  oppressive  and  irritating  commer- 
cial regulations  were  put  in  force,  and  all  colonial  laws 
opposing  them  were  abrogated.  Complaints  under  these 
regulations  were  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  colonial  judges 
and  juries,  on  the  plea  that  they  were  often  the  offenders. 
Woolen  manufactures,  as  interfering  with  English  industry, 
were  so  rigorously  forbidden,  that  a  sailor  in  an  American 
port  could  not  buy  himself  a  flannel  shirt,  and  the  Virgin- 
ians were  put  to  it  to  clothe  themselves  at  all.  Naturally, 
the  people  resisted  so  far  as  they  could,  and  that  was  not  a 
little;  England  could  not  spare  a  sufficient  force  to  insure 
obedience  to  laws  of  such  a  kind.  "We  have  a  right  to  the 
same  liberties  as  Englishmen,"  was  the  burden  of  all  remon- 
strances, and  it  was  supported  by  councilors  on  the  bench 
and  ministers  in  the  pulpit.  The  revenues  were  so  small  as 
hardly  to  repay  the  cost  of  management.  It  is  hard  to 
coerce  a  nation  and  get  a  profit  over  expenses ;  and  the  colo- 
nies were  a  nation' — they  numbered  nearly  three  hundred 
thousand  in  Anne's  reign — without  the  advantage  of  being 
coherent;  they  were  a  baker's  dozen  of  disputatious  and 
recalcitrant  incoherencies.  The  only  arbitrary  measure  of 
taxation  that  was  amiably  accepted  was  the  post-office  tax, 
which  was  seen  to  be  productive  of  a  useful  service  at  a 
reasonable  cost ;  and  an  act  to  secure  suitable  trees  for  masts 
for  the  navy  was  tolerated  because  there  were  so  many  trees. 
The  coinage  system  was  no  system  at  all,  and  led  to  much 
confusion  and  loss;  and  the  severe  laws  against  piracy, 
which  had  grown  to  be  common,  and  in  the  profits  of  which 
persons  high  in  the  community  were  often  suspected  and 
sometimes  proved  to  have  been  participants,  were  less  effec- 


THE  NEW  LEAF,  AND  THE  BLOT  ON  IT        245 

tive  than  they  certainly  ought  to  have  been ;  but  they,  and 
the  bloody  and  desperate  objects  of  them,  added  a  pictur- 
esque page  to  the  annals  of  the  time. 

Concerning  the  condition  of  the  several  colonies  during 
the  years  following  the  Revolution  of  1688,  it  may  be  said, 
in  general,  that  it  was  much  better  in  fact  than  it  was  in 
theory.  There  were  narrow  and  unjust  and  shortsighted 
laws  and  regulations,  and  there  were  men  of  a  corresponding 
stamp  to  execute  them ;  but  the  success  such  persons  met 
with  was  sporadic,  uncertain,  and  partial.  The  people  were 
grown  too  big,  and  too  well  aware  of  their  bigness,  to  be 
ground  down  and  kept  in  subjection,  even  had  the  will  so  to 
afflict  them  been  steady  and  virulent — which  it  cannot  be 
said  to  have  been.  The  people  knew  that,  be  the  law  what 
it  might,  it  could,  on  the  whole,  be  evaded  or  disregarded, 
unless  or  until  the  mother  country  undertook  to  enforce  it  by 
landing  an  army  and  regularly  making  war;  and  England 
had  too  many  troubles  of  her  own,  and  also  contained  too 
many  liberal-minded  men,  to  attempt  such  a  thing  for  the 
present.  The  proof  that  the  colonies  were  not  seriously  or 
consistently  oppressed  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  they  all 
increased  rapidly  in  population  and  wealth,  notwithstanding 
their  "troubles";  and  it  was  not  until  England  had  settled 
down  under  her  Georges,  and  that  Providence  had  inspired 
the  third  of  that  name  with  the  pig-headedness  that  cost 
his  adopted  subjects  so  dear,  that  the  Revolution  became 
a  possibility.  Yet  even  now  there  was  no  lack  of  talk 
of  such  an  eventuality;  the  remark  was  common  that  in 
process  of  time  the  colonies  would  declare  their  independ- 
ence. But  perhaps  it  was  made  rather  with  intent  to  spur 
England  to  adopt  preventative  measures  .in  season,  than 
from  a  real  conviction  that  the  event  would  actually  take 
place. 

New  York,  at  the  tune  of  William's  accession,  had  been 
under  the  control  of  Andros,  who  at  that  epoch  commanded 
a  domain  two  or  three  times  as  large  as  Britain,  Nicholson 


246  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

was  his  lieutenant ;  and  on  the  news  of  the  Revolution  Jacob 
Leisler,  a  German,  who  had  come  over  in  1660  as  a  soldier 
of  the  Dutch  West  India  Company,  and  had  made  a  for- 
tune, unseated  Nicholson  and  proclaimed  William  and  Mary. 
Supported  by  the  mass  of  the  Dutch  inhabitants,  but  without 
other  warrant,  he  assumed  the  functions  of  royal  lieutenant- 
governor,  pending  the  arrival  of  the  new  king's  appointee. 
In  the  interests  of  order,  it  was  the  best  thing  to  do.  But  he 
made  active  enemies  among  the  other  elements  of  the  cosmo- 
politan population  of  New  York,  and  they  awaited  an  oppor- 
tunity to  be  avenged  on  him,  This  came  with  the  arrival  of 
Henry  Sloughter  in  1691,  with  the  king's  commission. 
Sloughter  can  only  be  described  as  a  drunken  profligate.  At 
the  earliest  moment,  Leisler  sent  to  know  his  commands, 
and  offered  to  surrender  the  fort.  Sloughter  answered  by 
arresting  him  and  Milborne,  his  son-in-law,  on  the  charge  of 
high  treason — an  absurdity ;  but  they  were  arraigned  before 
a  partisan  court  and  condemned  to  be  hanged — they  refusing 
to  plead  and  appealing  to  the  king.  It  is  said  that  Sloughter 
did  not  intend  to  carry  the  sentence  into  effect ;  but  the  local 
enemies  of  Leisler  made  the  governor  drunk  that  night,  and 
secured  his  signature  to  the  decree.  This  was  on  May  14, 
1691;  on  the  15th,  the  house  disapproved  the  sentence,  but 
on  the  16th  it  was  carried  out,  the  victims  meeting  their  fate 
with  dignity  and  courage.  In  1695,  the  attainder  was  re- 
versed by  act  of  parliament;  but  it  remains  the  most  dis- 
graceful episode  of  William's  government  of  the  colonies. 
Meanwhile,  Sloughter  was  recalled,  and  Fletcher  sent 
out.  He  was  not  a  sodden  imbecile,  but  he  was  ill-chosen 
for  his  office.  He  described  the  New  Yorkers  of  that  day  as 
"divided,  contentious  and  impoverished,"  and  immediately 
began  a  conflict  with  them.  His  attitude  may  be  judged 
from  a  passage  in  his  remarks  to  the  assembly  soon  after- 
ward: "There  never  was  an  amendment  desired  by  the 
council  board  but  what  was  rejected.  It  is  a  sign  of  a 
stubborn  iJ -temper.  .  .  .  While  I  stay  in  this  government  I 


ARRESTING  A  WOMAN  CHARGED  WITH  WITCHCRAFT 


THE  NEW  LEAF,  AND  THE  BLOT  ON  IT        247 

will  take  care  that  neither  heresy,  schism,  nor  rebellion  be 
preached  among  you,  nor  vice  and  profanity  be  encouraged. 
You  seem  to  take  the  power  into  your  own  hands  and  set  up 
for  everything."  This  last  observation  was  probably  not  de- 
void of  truth;  nor  was  a  subsequent  one,  "There  are  none 
of  you  but  what  are  big  with  the  privileges  of  Englishmen 
and  Magna  Charta."  That  well  describes  the  colonist  of 
the  period,  whether  in  New  York  or  elsewhere.  It  had 
been  said  of  New  Yorkers,  however,  that  they  were  a  con- 
quered people,  who  had  no  rights  that  a  king  was  bound  to 
respect ;  and  the  grain  of  truth  in  the  saying  may  have  made 
the  New  Yorkers  more  than  commonly  anxious  to  keep  out 
the  small  end  of  the  wedge.  Bellomont's  incumbency  was 
mild,  and  chiefly  memorable  by  reason  of  his  having  com- 
missioned a  certain  William  Kidd  to  suppress  piracy;  but 
Kidd — if  tradition  is  to  be  believed: — certainly  his  most 
unfair  and  prejudiced  trial  in  London  afforded  no  evidence 
of  it — found  more  pleasure  in  the  observance  than  in  the 
breach,  and  became  the  most  famous  pirate  of  them  all. 
There  is  gold  enough  of  his  getting  buried  along  the  coasts 
to  buy  a  modern  ironclad  fleet,  according  to  the  belief  of  the 
credulous.  A  little  later,  Steed  Bonnet,  Richard  Worley, 
and  Edward  Teach,  nicknamed  Blackboard,  had  similar 
fame  and  fate.  Their  business,  like  others  of  great  profit, 
incurred  great  risks. 

Of  Lord  Cornbury,  the  next  governor,  Bancroft  remarks, 
with  unwonted  energy,  that  "He  joined  the  worst  form  of 
arrogance  to  intellectual  imbecility,"  and  that  "happily  for 
New  York,  he  had  every  vice  of  character  necessary  to 
discipline  a  colony  into  self-reliance  and  resistance."  He 
began  by  stealing  $1,500  appropriated  to  fortify  the  Nar- 
rows ;  it  was  the  last  money  he  got  from  the  various  assem- 
blies that  he  called  and  dissolved,  and  the  assemblies  became 
steadily  more  independent  and  embarrassing.  In  1707,  the 
Quaker  speaker  read  out  hi  meeting  a  paper  accusing  him  of 
bribe  taking.  Cornbury  disappears  from  American  history 


248  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  next  year ;  and  completed  his  career,  in  England,  as  the 
third  Earl  of  Clarendon. 

Under  Lovelace,  the  assembly  refused  supplies  and  as- 
sumed executive  powers;  when  Hunter  came,  he  found  a 
fertile  and  wealthy  country,  but  nothing  in  it  for  him: 
"Sancho  Panza  was  but  a  type  of  me."  He  was  a  man 
of  humor  and  sagacity,  and  perceived  that  "the  colonists  are 
infants  at  foeir  mother's  breasts,  but  will  wean  themselves 
when  they  come  of  age."  Before  he  got  through  with  the 
New  Yorkers,  he  had  reason  to  suspect  that  the  weaning 
time  had  all  but  arrived. 

New  Jersey  passed  through  many  trivial  vicissitudes, 
changes  of  ownership,  vexed  land-titles,  and  royal  encroach- 
ments. For  several  years  the  people  had  no  visible  govern- 
ment at  all.  They  did  not  hold  themselves  so  well  in  hand 
as  did  New  York,  and  were  less  audacious  and  aggressive  in 
resistance ;  but  in  one  way  or  another,  they  fairly  held  their 
own,  prospered  and  multiplied.  Pennsylvania  enjoyed  from 
the  first  more  undisturbed  independence  and  self-direction 
than  the  others ;  at  one  time  it  seemed  to  be  their  ambition 
to  discover  something  which  Penn  would  not  grant  them, 
and  then  to  ask  for  it.  But  the  great  Quaker  was  equal  to 
the  occasion;  no  selfishness,  crankiness,  or  whimsicality  on 
their  part  could  wear  out  his  patience  and  benevolence.  In 
the  intervals  of  his  imprisonments  in  England  he  labored  for 
their  welfare.  The  queen  contemplated  making  Pennsylva- 
nia a  royal  province,  but  Penn,  though  poor,  would  not  let  it 
go  except  on  condition  it  might  retain  its  democratic  liber- 
ties. The  people,  in  short,  kept  everything  in  their  own 
hands,  and  their  difficulties  arose  chiefly  from  their  disputes 
as  to  what  to  do  with  so  much  freedom.  It  was  a  colony 
where  everybody  was  equal,  without  an  established  church, 
where  any  one  was  welcome  to  enter  and  dwell,  which  was 
destitute  of  arms  or  defense  or  even  police,  which  yet 
grew  in  all  good  things  more  rapidly  than  any  of  its  sister 
colonies.  The  people  waxed  fat  and  kicked,  but  they  did  no 


THE  NEW  LEAF,  AND  THE  BLOT  ON  IT        249 

evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  whatever  England  may  have 
thought  of  them;  and  after  the  contentious  little  appendage 
of  Delaware  had  finally  been  cut  off  from  its  big  foster  sister 
(though  they  shared  the  same  governors  until  the  Revolu- 
tion) there  is  little  more  to  be  said  of  either  of  them. 

The  Roman  Catholic  owners  of  Maryland  fared  ill  after 
"William  came  into  power ;  he  made  the  colony  a  royal  prov- 
ince in  1691,  and  for  thirty  years  or  more  there  were  no 
more  Baltimores  in  the  government.  Under  Copley,  the 
first  royal  governor,  the  Church  of  England  was  declared  to 
be  established;  but  dissenters  were  afterward  protected; 
only  the  Catholics  were  treated  with  intolerance  in  the 
garden  themselves  had  made.  The  people  soon  settled 
down  and  became  contented,  and  slowly  their  numbers 
augmented.  But  the  Baltimores  were  persistent,  and  the 
fourth  lord,  in  1715,  took  advantage  of  his  infancy  to  com- 
pass a  blameless  reconciliation  with  the  Church  of  England, 
thereby  securing  his  installation  in  the  proprietary  rights  of 
his  forefathers,  from  which  the  family  was  not  evicted  until 
the  Revolution  of  the  colonies  in  1775  opened  a  new  chapter 
in  the  history  of  the  world. 

Virginia  recovered  rapidly  from  Berkeley,  and  suffered 
little  from  Andros,  who  was  governor  in  1692,  but  with  his 
fangs  drawn,  and  an  experience  to  remember.  The  people 
still  eschewed  towns,  and  lived  each  family  in  its  own  soli- 
tude, hospitable  to  all,  but  content  with  their  own  company. 
The  love  of  independence  grew  alike  in  the*  descendants  of 
the  cavaliers  and  in  the  common  people,  and  the  wide  appli- 
cation of  the  suffrage  equalized  power,  and  even  enabled  the 
lower  sort  to  keep  the  gentry,  when  the  fancy  took  them,  out 
of  the  places  of  authority  and  trust.  Democracy  was  in  the 
woods  and  streams  and  the  blue  sky,  and  all  breathed  it  in 
and  absorbed  it  into  their  blood  and  bone.  They  early  peti- 
tioned William  for  home  rule  in  all  its  purity ;  he  permitted 
land  grants  to  be  confirmed,  but  would  not  let  their  assem- 
bly supplant  the  English  parliament  as  a  governing  power. 


250  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

He  sought,  unsuccessfully,  to  increase  the  authority  of  the 
church ;  for  though  the  bishop  might  license  and  the  gov- 
ernor recommend,  the  parish  would  not  present.  It  was  a 
leisurely,  good-natured,  careless,  but  spirited  people,  indif- 
ferent to  commerce,  content  to  harvest  their  fields  and  rule 
their  slaves,  and  let  the  world  go  by.  A  more  enviable  ex- 
istence than  theirs  it  would  be  hard  to  imagine.  All  their 
financial  transactions  were  done  in  tobacco,  even  to  the 
clergyman's  stipend  and  the  judge's  fee.  No  enemy  men- 
aced them ;  politics  were  rather  an  amusement  than  a  serious' 
duty;  yet  in  these  fertile  regions  were  made  the  brains  and 
characters  which  afterward,  for  so  many  years,  ruled  the 
councils  of  the  United  States,  or  led  her  armies  in  war. 
They  lay  fallow  for  seventy-five  years,  and  then  gave  the 
best  of  accounts  of  themselves.  England  did  not  quite 
know  what  to  make  of  the  Virginians ;  to  judge  by  the 
reports  of  the  governors,  they  were  changeable  as  a  pretty 
woman.  But  they  were  simply  capricious  humorists,  full  of 
life  and  intelligence,  who  did  what  they  pleased  and  did  not 
take  themselves  too  seriously.  They  indulged  themselves 
with  the  novel  toy,  the  post-office;  and  founded  William 
and  Mary  College  in  1693.  This  venerable  institution 
passed  its  second  centennial  with  one  hundred  and  sixty 
students  on  its  roll;  but,  soon  after,  it  "ceased  upon  the 
midnight,  without  pain."  Anybody  may  have  a  college 
in  these  days. 

The  Carolirtas,  no  longer  pestered  by  Grand  Models, 
became  another  rustic  paradise.  Their  suns  were  warm, 
their  forests  vast,  their  people  delighting  in  a  sort  of  wild 
civilization.  "When  James  II.  went  down,  the  Carolinians 
needed  no  care-taker,  and  declined  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
martial  law  suggested  by  the  anxious  proprietors.  But  in 
1690  they  allowed  Seth  Sothel  to  occupy  the  gubernatorial 
seat,  and  sent  up  a  legislature.  The  southern  section  was 
subjected  to  some  superficial  annoyance  by  the  proprietors, 
who  wished  to  make  an  income  from  the  country,  but  were 


THE  NEW  LEAF,  AND  THE  BLOT  ON  IT        251 

unwilling  to  put  their  hands  in  their  pockets  in  the  first 
place ;  they  insisted  upon  their  authority,  and  the  colonists 
did  not  say  them  nay,  but  maintained  freedom  of  action  in 
all  their  concerns  nevertheless.  A  series  of  proprietary  gov- 
ernors were  sent  out  to  them — Ludwell  first,  then  Smith; 
both  failed,  and  retired.  Then  came  Archdale,  the  Quaker, 
who  struck  a  popular  note  hi  his  remark  that  dissenters 
could  cut  wood  and  hoe  crops  as  well  as  the  highest  church- 
men; his  policy  was  to  concede,  to  conciliate  and  to  har- 
monize, and  he  was  welcome  and  useful.  The  Indians,  and 
even  the  Spaniards,  were  brought  into  friendly  relations. 
Liberty  of  conscience  was  accorded  to  all  but  "papists," 
who  were  certainly  hardly  used  in  these  times.  An  attempt 
to  base  political  power  on  possession  of  land  was  defeated  in 
1702.  The  Church  of  England  was  accepted  in  1704,  and 
though  dissenters  were  tolerated,  it  remained  the  official  dis- 
penser of  religion  until  the  Revolution.  All  these  things 
were  on  the  surface ;  the  colony,  inside,  was  free,  happy  and 
prosperous ;  it  had  adopted  rice  culture,  with  a  great  supply 
of  negro  slaves,  and  it  brought  furs  from  far  in  the  interior. 
The  Huguenots  had  been  enfranchised  as  soon  as  it  was 
known  that  England  had  turned  her  back  on  Catholicism 
and  James.  None  of  the  colonies  had  before  them  a  future 
more  peaceful  and  profitable  than  South  Carolina.  The 
slaves  were  her  only  burden;  but  at  that  period  they 
seemed  not  a  burden,  but  the  assurance  of  her  prosperity. 
North  Carolina  was  as  happy  and  as  peaceful  as  her 
southern  sister,  but  the  conditions  of  life  there  were  differ- 
ent. The  proprietors  attempted  to  control  the  people,  but 
were  worsted  in  almost  every  encounter.  Laws  were  passed 
only  to  be  disregarded.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  the  Quakers  be- 
came conspicuous  in  inculcating  liberal  notions,  and  were 
paid  the  compliment  of  being  hated  and  feared  by  the  emis- 
saries of  England.  What  was  to  be  done  with  a  population 
made  up  of  fugitives  of  all  kinds,  not  from  Europe  ©nly,  but 
from  the  other  colonies ;  who  held  all  creeds,  or  none  at  all ; 


252  HISTORY   OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

who  lived  by  hunting  and  tree-cutting;  who  were  as  averse 
from  towns  as  Virginia,  and  many  of  whom  could  not  be 
said  to  have  any  fixed  abode  at  all?  If  restraints  were  pro- 
posed, they  ignored  them ;  if  they  were  pressed,  they  resisted 
them,  sometimes  boisterously,  but  never  with  bloodshed. 
Robert  Daniel,  deputy  governor  in  1704,  tried  to  establish 
the  Church  of  England;  a  building  was  erected,  but  in  all 
the  province  there  was  but  one  clergyman,  with  an  absentee 
congregation  scattered  over  hundreds  of  miles  of  mountain 
and  forest.  In  the  following  year  there  were  two  governors 
elected  by  opposite  factions,  each  with  his  own  legislature ; 
and  in  1711  Edward  Hyde,  going  out  to  restore  order,  con- 
founded the  confusion.  He  called  in  Spotswood  from  Vir- 
ginia to  help  him;  but  there  were  too  many  Quakers;  and 
the  old  soldier,  after  landing  a  party  of  marines  to  indicate 
his  disapproval  of  anarchy,  retired.  Meantime,  fresh  emi- 
grants kept  arriving,  including  many  Palatinates  from 
Germany.  It  was  not  a  profitable  country  to  its  reputed 
owners,  who,  in  1714,  received  a  hundred  dollars  apiece 
from  it.  But  it  supported  its  inhabitants  all  the  better;  and 
it  was  eight  years  more  before  they  supplied  themselves 
with  a  court  house,  and  forty,  before  they  felt  the  need  of 
a  printing  press. 

In  New  England,  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  which 
had  suffered  comparatively  little  from  the  despotism  of 
James,  readily  recovered  such  minor  rights  as  they  had 
been  deprived  of.  There  was  a  dispute  between  Fitz-John 
Winthrop  and  Fletcher  as  to  the  command  of  the  local 
militia,  the  former,  with  his  fellow  colonists,  demanding 
that  the  control  be  kept  by  the  colony ;  Winthrop  went  to 
England  and  got  confirmation  of  his  plea;  and  from  the 
people,  on  his  return,  the  governorship.  There  were  a  score 
and  a  half  of  flourishing  towns  in  Connecticut,  each  with  its 
meeting  house  and  school.  Little  Rhode  Island  recovered 
its  charter,  whether  the  original  from  the  hollow  oak,  or  a 
duplicate.  An  act  was  pending  in  England  to  abrogate  all 


THE  NEW  LEAF,  AND  THE  BLOT  ON  IT        253 

colonial  charters,  and  was  backed  by  the  strong  mercantile 
influence;  but  the  French  war  caused  it  to  go  over.  Lord 
Cornbury,  and  Joseph  Dudley,  the  Massachusetts-born 
traitor,  did  their  best  to  get  a  royal  governor  for  these 
colonies,  but  they  failed;  though  Dudley,  at  the  instance 
of  Cotton  Mather,  was  afterward  made  governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. 

But  no  son  of  Massachusetts  has  so  well  deserved  the 
condemnation  of  history  as  Cotton  Mather  himself.  Such 
political  sins  as  his  advocacy  of  Dudley,  and  his  opposition 
to  the  revival  of  the  old  charter,  are  trifling;  they  might 
have  been  the  result  of  ordinary  blindness  or  selfishness 
merely ;  but  his  part  in  the  witchcraft  delusion  cannot  be 
so  accounted  for.  In  his  persecution  of  the  accused  persons 
he  was  actuated  by  a  spirit  of  inflamed  vanity  and  malignity 
truly  diabolic ;  and  if  there  can  be  a  crime  which  Heaven 
cannot  forgive,  assuredly  Cotton  Mather  steeped  himself  in 
it.  He  was  a  singular  being;  yet  he  represented  the  evil 
tendencies  of  Puritanism;  they  drained  into  him,  so  to  say, 
until  he  became  their  sensible  incarnation.  In  his  person, 
at  last,  the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  beheld  united  every 
devilish  trait  to  which  the  tenets  of  their  belief  could  incline 
them ;  and  the  hideousness  of  the  spectacle  so  impressed  them 
that,  from  that  time  forward,  any  further  Cotton  Mathers 
became  impossible.  There  is  no  feature  in  Mather's  case 
that  can  be  held  to  palliate  his  conduct.  He  had  the  best 
education  of  the  time,  coming,  as  he  did,  from  a  line  of 
scholars,  and  out-Heroding  them  in  the  variety  and  curious- 
ness  of  his  accomplishments,  and  in  the  number  of  his  pub- 
lished "works" — three  hundred  and  eighty-three.  Nothing 
that  he  produced  has  any  original  value;  but  his  erudition 
was  enormous.  Of  "Magnalia,"  his  chief  and  representa- 
tive work,  it  has  been  said  that  "it  is  a  heterogeneous  and 
polyglot  compilation  of  information  useful  and  useless,  of 
unbridled  pedantry,  of  religious  adjuration.:,  biographical 
anecdotes,  political  maxims,  and  theories  of  education.  .  .  . 


254  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

Indeed,  it  contains  everything  except  order,  accuracy,  sobri- 
ety, proportion,  development,  and  upshot. ' '  This  man,  born 
in  1663,  was  not  yet  thirty  years  of  age  when  his  campaign 
against  the  witches  began;  indeed,  he  had  given  a  hint  of 
his  direction  some  years  earlier.  In  his  multifarious  read- 
ing he  had  become  acquainted  with  all  existing  traditions 
and  speculations  concerning  witchcraft,  and  his  profession 
as  minister  in  the  Calvinist  communion  predisposed  him  to 
investigate  all  accessible  details  concerning  the  devil.  He 
was  passionately  hungry  for  notoriety  and  conspicuousness : 
Tydides  melior  patre  was  the  ambition  he  proposed  to  him- 
self. A  huge  memory,  stored  with  the  promiscuous  rubbish 
of  libraries,  and  with  facts  which  were  transformed  into  rub- 
bish by  his  treatment  of  them,  was  combined  in  him  with  a 
diseased  imagination,  and  a  personal  vanity  almost  surpass- 
ing belief.  His  mental  shallowness  and  consequent  rest- 
lessness rendered  anything  like  original  theught  impossible 
to  him;  and  the  faculty  of  intellectual  digestion  was  not 
less  beyond  him.  It  is  probable  that  curiosity  was  the  mo- 
tive which  originally  drew  him  to  the  study  of  witchcraft ; 
a  vague  credence  of  such  things  was  common  at  the  time ; 
and  in  France  and  England  many  executions  for  the  sup- 
posed crime  had  taken  place.  Mather  had  no  convictions 
on  the  subject;  he  was  incapable  of  convictions  of  any  kind; 
and  the  revelation  of  his  private  diary  shows  that  at  the 
very  time  he  was  wallowing  in  murders,  and  shrieking  out 
for  ever  more  victims,  he  was  in  secret  doubting  the  truth  of 
all  religion,  and  coquetting  with  atheism.  But  men  of  no 
religious  faith  are  prone  to  superstitions ;  the  man  who  denies 
God  is  the  first  to  seek  for  guidance  from  the  stars.  Suppose 
there  should  be  a  devil? — was  Mather's  thought.  It  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at  that  such  a  man  should  be  fascinated  by 
the  notion ;  and  we  may  perhaps  concede  to  Mather  that,  if 
at  any  time  in  his  career  he  approached  belief  in  anything, 
the  devil  was  the  subject  of  his  belief.  Had  his  character 
been  genuine  and  vigorous,  such  a  belief  would  have  led 


THE  NEW  LEAF,  AND  THE  BLOT  ON  IT        255 

him  to  plunge  into  witchcraft,  not  as  a  persecutor,  but  as  a 
performer ;  he  would  have  aimed  to  be  chief  at  the  witches* 
Sabbath,  and  to  have  rioted  in  the  terrible  powers  with 
which  Satan's  children  were  credited.  But  he  was  far  from 
owning  this  bold  and  trenchant  fiber;  though  he  could  not 
believe  in  God,  he  dared  not  defy  Him ;  and  still  he  could 
not  refrain  from  dabbling  in  the  forbidden  mysteries.  More- 
over, there  was  an  obscure  and  questionable  faculty  inherent 
in  certain  persons,  unaccountable  on  any  recognized  natural 
grounds,  which  gave  support  to  the  witchcraft  theory.  "We 
call  this  faculty  hypnotism  now;  and  physiology  seeks  to 
connect  it  with  the  nervous  affections  of  hysteria  and 
epilepsy  At  all  times,  and  in  all  quarters  of  the  earth, 
manifestations  of  it  have  not  been  wanting;  and  in  Africa 
it  has  for  centuries  existed  as  a  so-called  religious  cult,  to 
which  in  this  country  the  name  of  Hoodooism  or  Voodoo- 
ism  has  been  applied.  It  is  a  savage  form  of  devil  wor- 
ship, including  snake- charming,  and  the  lore  of  fetiches  and 
charms;  and  its  professors  are  able  to  produce  abnormal 
effects,  within  certain  limits,  upon  the  nerves  and  imagina- 
tions of  their  clients  or  victims.  Among  the  negro  slaves  in 
Massachusetts  in  1692,  and  the  negro-Indian  mongrels,  there 
were  persons  able  to  exercise  this  power.  They  attracted 
the  attention  of  Cotton  Mather. 

Gradually,  we  may  suppose,  the  idea  took  form  in  his 
mind  that  if  he  could  not  be  a  witch  himself,  he  might  gain 
the  notoriety  he  craved  by  becoming  the  denouncer  of 
witchcraft  in  others.  Ministers  in  that  day  still  had  great 
influence  in  New  England,  and  had  grasped  at  temporal 
as  well  as  spiritual  sway,  maintaining  that  the  former 
should  rightly  involve  the  latter.  What  a  minister  said, 
had  weight;  what  so  well-known  a  minister  as  Cotton 
Mather  said,  would  carry  conviction  to  many.  If  Mather 
could  procure  the  execution  of  a  witch  or  two,  it  could 
not  fail  to  add  greatly  to  his  spiritual  glory  and  ascend- 
ency. It  is,  of  course,  not  to  be  imagined  that  he  had  any 


256  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

conception,  beforehand,  of  the  extent  to  which  the  agitation 
he  was  about  to  begin  would  be  carried.  But  when  evil  is 
once  let  loose,  it  multiplies  itself  and  gains  impetus,  and 
rages  like  a  fire.  The  only  thing  for  Mather  to  do  was  to 
keep  abreast  of  the  mischief  which  he  had  created.  If  he 
faltered  or  relented,  he  would  be  himself  destroyed.  He 
was  whirled  along  with  the  foul  storm  by  a  mingling  of 
terror,  malice,  vanity,  triumph  and  fascination :  as  repulsive 
and  dastardly  a  figure  as  has  ever  stained  the  records  of  our 
country.  He  was  ready  to  sacrifice  the  population  of  Massa- 
chusetts rather  than  confess  that  the  deeds  for  which  he  was 
responsible  were  based  on  what,  in  his  secret  soul,  he  un- 
questionably felt  was  a  delusion.  For  though  he  may  have 
half -believed  in  witchcraft  while  it  presented  itself  to  him  as 
a  theory,  yet  as  soon  as  he  had  reached  the  stage  of  actual 
examinations  and  court  testimony,  he  could  not  fail  to  per- 
ceive that  the  theory  was  utterly  devoid  of  reasonable  foun- 
dation; that  convictions  could  not  be  had  except  by  aid  of 
open  perjury,  suppression  and  intimidation.  Yet  Cotton 
Mather  scrupled  not  to  put  in  operation  these  and  other 
devices;  to  hound  on  the  magistrates,  to  browbeat  and 
sophisticate  the  juries,  and  to  scream  threats,  warnings  and 
self-glorifications  from  the  pulpit.  Needs  must,  when  the 
devil  drives.  Had  he  paused,  had  he  -even  held  his  peace, 
that  noose,  slimy  with  the  death-sweat  of  a  score  of  innocent 
victims,  would  have  settled  greedily  round  his  own  guilty 
neck,  and  strangled  his  life.  But  Cotton  Mather  was  too 
nimble,  too  voluble,  too  false  and  too  cowardly  for  the  gal- 
lows; he  lived  to  a  good  age,  and  died  in  the  odor  of 
sanctity. 

Immediately  after  the  news  of  William's  accession  was 
known  in  New  England,  Mather  opposed  the  restoration  of 
the  ancient  charter,  because  it  would  have  interfered  with 
the  plans  of  his  personal  political  ambition.  He  caused  the 
presentation  of  an  address  to  the  king,  purporting  to  repre- 
sent the  desire  of  the  majority  of  reputable  citizens  of  Boston, 


THE  NEW  LEAF,  AND  THE  BLOT  ON  IT        257 

placing  themselves  at  the  royal  disposal,  without  suggesting 
that  the  charter  rights  be  revived.  Cotton  Mather's  father, 
Increase,  was  the  actual  agent  to  England ;  but  it  was  the 
views  of  Cotton  Mather  rather  than  his  own  that  he  submit- 
ted to  his  majesty.  The  blatant  hypocrite  had  dominated 
his  father.  The  king  gave  Massachusetts  a  new  charter 
which  was  entirely  satisfactory  to  the  petitioners,  for  it  took 
away  the  right  of  the  people  to  elect  their  own  officers  and 
manage  their  own  affairs,  and  made  the  king  the  fountain 
of  power  and  honor.  It  was  identical  with  all  charters  of 
royal  colonies,  except  that  the  council  was  elected  jointly 
by  the  people  and  by  its  own  members.  Sir  William  Phips, 
at  Increase  Mather's  suggestion,  was  made  governor,  and 
William  Stoughton  lieutenant-governor.  The  members  of 
the  council  were  "every  man  of  them  a  friend  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  churches,"  and  of  Cotton  Mather.  He  did  not 
conceal  his  delight.  "The  time  for  favor  is  come,  yea,  the 
set  time  is  come !  Instead  of  my  being  made  a  sacrifice  to 
wicked  rulers,  my  father-in-law,  with  several  related  to  me, 
and  several  brethren  of  my  own  church,  are  among  the 
council.  The  governor  is  not  my  enemy,  but  one  whom  I 
baptized,  and  one  of  my  own  flock,  and  one  of  my  dearest 
friends. — I  obtained  of  the  Lord  that  He  would  use  me  to  be 
a  herald  of  His  kingdom  now  approaching."  Such  was  the 
attitude  of  Cotton  Mather  regarding  the  political  outlook. 
Obviously  the  field  was  prepared  for  him  to  achieve  his 
crowning  distinction  as  champion  of  God  against  the  devil 
in  Massachusetts.  In  February  of  the  next  year  he  found 
his  first  opportunity. 

There  was  in  Salem  a  certain  Reverend  Samuel  Parrie 
who  had  a  daughter,  a  niece,  and  a  negro-Indian  servant 
called  Tituba.  The  children  were  about  twelve  years  of  age, 
and  much  in  Tituba's  society.  Parris  was  an  Englishman 
born,  and  was  at  this  time  forty-one  years  old;  he  had  lef* 
Harvard  College  without  a  degree,  had  been  in  trade  in 
Boston,  and  had  entered  the  ministry  and  obtained  the  pa? 


258  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

torship  of  the  Congregational  church  at  Danvers,  then  a 
part  of  Salem,  three  or  four  years  before.  He  had  not 
lived  at  peace  with  his  people;  he  had  quarreled  bitterly 
with  some  of  them,  and  the  scandal  had  been  noised 
abroad.  He  was  a  man  of  brutal  temper,  and  without 
moral  integrity.  These  were  the  dramatis  personse  em- 
ployed by  Cotton  Mather  in  the  first  scene  of  his  hide- 
ous farce. 

The  children,  at  the  critical  age  between  childhood  and 
puberty,  were,  in  a  condition  to  be  readily  worked  upon ;  it 
is  the  age  when  the  nervous  system  is  disorganized,  the 
moral  sense  unformed,  and  the  imagination  ignorant  and 
unbridled.  Many  children  are  liars  and  deceivers,  and  self- 
deceivers,  then,  who  afterward  develop  into  sanity  and 
goodness.  But  these  unhappy  little  creatures  were  under 
the  fascination  of  the  illiterate  and  abnormal  mongrel,  and 
she  secretly  ravished  and  fascinated  them  with  her  inexplic- 
able powers  and  obscure  devices.  Their  antics  aroused  sus- 
picions in  the  coarse  and  perhaps  superstitious  mind  of 
Parris;  he  catechised  them;  the  woman's  husband  told 
what  he  knew;  and  Parris  beat  her  till  she  consented  to 
say  she  was  a  witch.  Such  phenomena  could  only  be  due 
to  witchcraft.  The  cunning  and  seeming  malignity  of  the 
children  would  tax  belief,  were  it  not  so  familiar  a  fact  in 
children;  and  notable  also  was  their  histrionic  ability.  They 
were  excited  by  the  sensation  they  aroused,  and  vain  of  it ; 
they  were  willing  to  do  what  they  could  to  prolong  it.  But 
they  hardly  needed  to  invent  anything;  more  than  was 
necessary  was  suggested  to  them  by  questions  and  com- 
ments. They  were  quick  to  take  hints,  and  improve  upon 
them.  Sarah  Good,  Martha  Cory,  Rebecca  Nourse,  and  all 
the  rest,  must  be  their  victims;  but  God  will  forgive  the 
children,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do.  Presently,  the 
contagion  spread;  though,  upon  strict  examination  of  the 
evidence,  not  nearly  so  far  as  was  supposed.  Hundreds 
were  bewildered  and  terrified,  as  well  they  might  be;  the 


THE  NEW  LEAF,  AND  THE  BLOT  ON  IT        259 

magistrates— Stough  ton,  Sewall,  John  Hathorne,  poor  Octo- 
genarian Bradstreet,  Sir  William  Phips — these  and  others 
to  whom  it  fell  to  investigate  and  pronounce  sentence — let 
us  hope  that  some,  if  not  all  of  them,  truly  believed  that 
their  sentences  were  just.  "God  will  give  you  blood  to 
drink!"  was  what  Sarah  Good  said  to  Noyes,  as  she  stood 
on  the  scaffold.  But  why  may  they  not  have  believed  they 
were  in  the  right?  There  was  Cotton  Mather,  the  holy  man, 
the  champion  against  the  Evil  One,  the  saint  who  walked 
with  God,  and  daily  lifted  up  his  voice  in  prayer  and  defi- 
ance and  thanksgiving — he  was  ever  at  hand,  to  cross-ques- 
tion, to  insinuate,  to  surmise,  to  bluster,  to  interpret,  to 
terrify,  to  perplex,  to  vociferate:  surely,  this  paragon  of 
learning  and  virtue  must  know  more  about  the  devil  than 
any  mere  layman  could  pretend  to  know;  and  they  must 
accept  his  assurance  and  guidance.  "I  stake  my  reputa- 
tion," he  shouted,  "upon  the  truth  of  these  accusations." 
And  he  pointedly  prayed  that  the  trial  might  "have  a  good 
issue. ' '  When  Deliverance  Hobbs  was  under  examination, 
she  did  but  cast  a  glance  toward  the  meeting  house,  "and," 
cries  the  Reverend  gentleman,  in  an  ecstasy  of  indignation, 
"immediately  a  demon,  invisibly  entering  the  house,  tore 
down  a  part  of  it!"  No  wonder  a  man  so  gifted  as  he,  was 
conscious  of  a  certain  gratification  amid  all  the  horrors  of 
the  diabolic  visitation,  for  how  could  he  regard  it  otherwise 
than  as — in  his  own  words — "a  particular  defiance  unto 
myself!"  Such  was  the  pose  which  he  adopted  before  his 
countrymen:  that  of  a  semi-divine,  or  quite  Divine  man, 
standing  between  his  fellow  creatures  and  the  assaults  of 
hell.  And  then  Cotton  Mather  would  go  home  to  his  secret 
chamber,  and  write  in  his  diary  that  God  and  religion  were 
perhaps,  after  all,  but  an  old  wives'  tale. 

Parris,  as  soon  as  he  comprehended  Mather's  drift,  ably 
seconded  him.  He  had  his  own  grudges  against  his  neigh- 
bors to  work  off,  and  nothing  could  be  easier.  All  that  was 
needed  was  for  one  of  the  children,  or  any  one  else,  to 


260  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

affirm  that  they  were  afflicted,  'and  perhaps  to  foam  at  the 
mouth,  or  be  contorted  as  in  a  fit,  and  to  accuse  whatever 
person  they  chose  as  being  the  cause  of  their  trouble.  Accu- 
sation was  equivalent  to  condemnation ;  for  to  deny  it,  was 
to  be  subjected  to  torture  until  confession  was  extorted;  if 
the  accused  did  not  confess,  he  or  she  was,  according  to 
Cotton  Mather,  supported  by  the  evil  one,  and  being  a 
witch,  must  die.  If  they  did  confess,  they  were  spared  or 
executed  according  to  circumstances.  If  any  one  expressed 
any  doubt  as  to  the  justice  of  the  sentence,  or  as  to  the  ex- 
istence of  witchcraft,  it  was  proof  that  that  person  was  a 
witch.  The  only  security  was  to  join  the  ranks  of  the 
afflicted.  In  the  course  of  a  few  months  a  reign  of  terror 
was  established,  and  hundreds  of  people,  some  of  them 
citizens  of  distinction,  were  in  jail  or  under  suspicion. 
Twenty  were  hanged  on  Witches'  Hill,  west  of  the  town 
of  Salem,  while  Cotton  Mather  sate  comfortably  by  on  his 
horse,  and  assured  the  people  that  all  was  well,  and  that 
the  devil  could  sometimes  assume  the  appearance  of  an 
angel  of  light — as,  indeed,  he  might  have  good  cause  to 
believe.  But  the  mass  of  the  people  were  averse  from 
bloodshed,  and  none  too  sure  that  these  executions  were 
other  than  murders;  and  when  the  wife  of  Governor  Phips 
was  accused,  the  frenzy  had  passed  its  height.  It  was 
perceived  that  the  community,  or  a  part  of  it,  had  been 
stampeded  by  a  panic  or  infatuation.  They  had  done  and 
countenanced  things  which  now  seemed  impossible  even  to 
themselves.  How  could  they  have  condemned  the  Rever- 
end George  Burroughs  on  the  ground  that  he  had  exhibited 
remarkable  physical  strength,  and  that  the  witnesses  against 
him  had  pretended  dumbness?  "Why  is  the  devil  so  loth 
to  have  testimony  borne  against  you?"  Judge  Stoughton 
had  asked;  and  Cotton  Mather  had  said  "Enough!"  But 
was  it  enough,  indeed?  If  a  witness  simply  by  holding  his 
peace  can  hang  a  minister  of  blameless  life,  who  may  escape 
hanging  by  a  witness  who  will  talk?  It  was  remembered 


THE  NEW  LEAF,  AND  THE  BLOT  ON  IT        261 

that  Parris  had  been  Burroughs's  rival,  and  instrumental 
in  his  conviction ;  and  now  that  the  frenzy  was  past  it  was 
easy  to  point  out  the  relation  between  the  two  facts.  There, 
too,  was  the  venerable  Giles  Cory,  who  had  been  pressed  to 
death,  not  for  pleading  guilty,  nor  yet  for  pleading  not 
guilty,  but  for  declining  to  plead  at  all.  There,  once  more, 
was  John  "Willard,  to  whom  the  duty  of  arresting  accused 
witches  had  been  assigned ;  he,  as  a  person  of  common  sense 
and  honesty,  had  intimated  his  disbelief  in  the  reality  of 
witchcraft  by  refusing  to  arrest ;  and  for  this,  and  no  other 
crime,  had  he  been  hanged.  Had  it  really  come  to  this, 
then — that  one  must  die  for  having  it  inferred,  from  some 
act  of  his,  that  he  held  an  opinion  on  the  subject  of  witch- 
craft different  from  that  announced  by  Mather  and  the 
magistrates? — It  had  come  to  precisely  that,  in  a  commu- 
nity who  were  exiles  in  order  to  secure  liberty  to  have  what 
opinions  they  liked.  Then,  it  was  time  that  the  witchcraft 
persecutions  came  to  an  end :  and  they  did,  as  abruptly  as 
they  had  begun.  Mather,  indeed,  and  a  few  more,  fright- 
ened lest  the  people,  in  their  recovered  sanity,  should  turn 
upon  them  for  an  accounting,  strove  their  best  to  keep  up 
the  horror;  but  it  was  not  to  be.  No  more  convictions 
could  be  obtained.  In  February  of  1693,  Parris  was  ban- 
ished from  Salem ;  others,  except  Stoughton,  who  remained 
obdurate,  made  public  confession  of  error.  But  Cotton 
Mather,  the  soul  of  the  whole  iniquity,  shrouded  himself 
in  a  cuttle-fish  cloud  of  turgid  rhetoric,  and  escaped  scot- 
free.  So  great  was  the  power  of  theological  prestige  in 
New  England  two  hundred  years  ago. 

There  is  little  doubt  that  the  sincere  believers  in  the 
witchcraft  delusion  were  very  scanty.  The  vast  majority 
of  the  people  were  simply  victims  of  moral  and  physical 
cowardice.  They  feared  to  exchange  views  with  one  an- 
other frankly,  lest  their  interlocutor  turn  out  an  informer. 
They  repeated,  parrot-like,  the  conventional  utterances — the 
shibboleths — of  the  hour,  and  thus  hid  from  one  another  the 


262 


real  thoughts  which  would  have  scotched  the  mania  at  the 
outset.  Once  plant  mutual  suspicion  and  dread  among  a 
people,  and,  for  a  time,  you  may  drive  them  whither  you 
will.  It  was  by  that  means  that  the  Council  of  Ten  ruled 
in  Venice,  the  Inquisition  in  Spain,  and  the  Vehmgericht  in 
Germany;  and  it  was  by  that  means  that  Cotton  Mather 
enslaved  Salem.  The  episode  is  a  stain  on  the  fair  page  of 
our  history ;  but  Cotton  Mather  was  the  origin  and  agent  of 
it;  Parris  may  have  voluntarily  assisted  him,  and  some  or 
all  of  the  magistrates  and  others  concerned  may  have  been 
his  dupes;  but  beyond  this  handful,  the  support  was  never 
more  than  perfunctory.  The  instant  the  weight  of  dread 
was  lightened  everybody  discovered  that  everybody  else  had 
believed  all  along  that  the  whole  thing  was  either  a  delusion 
or  a  fraud.  Until  then,  they  had  none  of  them  had  the 
courage  to  say  so — that  was  all.  And  let  us  not  be  scorn- 
ful :  the  kind  of  courage  that  would  say  so  is  the  very  rarest 
and  highest  courage  in  the  world. 

But  though  Cotton  Mather  is  almost  or  entirely  charge- 
able with  the  guilt  of  the  twenty  murders  on  "Witches'  Hill, 
not  to  mention  the  incalculable  agony  of  soul  and  domestic 
misery  incidentally  occasioned,  yet  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  he  was  of  Puritan  stock  and  training,  and  that  false 
and  detestable  though  his  individual  nature  doubtless  was, 
his  crimes,  but  for  Puritanism,  could  not  have  taken  the 
form  they  did.  Puritanism  was  prone  to  brood  over  predes- 
tination, over  the  flames  of  hell,  and  him  who  kept  them 
burning;  it  was  severe  in  repressing  natural  expressions 
of  gayety;  it  was  intolerant  of  unlicensed  opinions,  and  it 
crushed  spontaneity  and  innocent  frivolity.  It  aimed,  in  a 
word,  to  deform  human  nature,  and  make  of  it  somewhat 
rigid  and  artificial.  These  were  some  of  the  faults  of  Puri- 
tanism, and  it  was  these  which  made  possible  such  a 
monstrosity  as  Cotton  Mather.  He  was,  in  a  measure,  a 
creature  of  his  time  and  place,  and  in  this  degree  we  must 
consider  Puritanism  as  amenable,  with  him,  at  the  bar  of 


THE  NEW  LEAF,   AND  THE  BLOT  ON  IT        263 

history.  It  is  for  this  reason  solely  that  the  witchcraft  epi- 
sode assumes  historical  importance,  instead  of  being  a  side- 
scene  of  ghastly  picturesqueness.  For  the  Puritans  took  it 
to  heart ;  they  never  forgot  it ;  it  modified  their  character, 
and  gave  a  favorable  turn  to  their  future.  Gradually  the 
evil  of  their  system  was  purged  out  of  it,  while  the  good 
remained ;  they  became  less  harsh,  but  not  less  strong ;  they 
were  high-minded,  still,  but  they  abjured  narrowness.  They 
would  not  go  so  far  as  to  deny  that  the  devil  might  afflict 
mankind,  but  they  declared  themselves  unqualified  to  prove 
it.  There  began  in  them,  in  short,  the  dawn  of  human 
sympathies,  and  the  growth  of  spiritual  humility.  Cotton 
Mather,  with  all  that  he  represented,  sinks  into  the  mire; 
but  the  true  Puritan  arises,  and  goes  forward  with  lightened 
heart  to  the  mighty  destiny  that  awaits  him. 

As  for  bluff  Sir  William  Phips,  he  is  better  remembered 
for  his  youthful  exploits  of  hoisting  treasure  from  the  fifty- 
year-old  wreck  of  a  Spanish  galleon,  in  the  reign  of  King 
James,  and  of  building  with  some  of  the  proceeds  his  "fair 
brick  house,  in  the  Green  Lane  of  Boston,"  than  for  his 
administration  of  government  during  his  term  of  office.  He 
was  an  uneducated,  rough-handed,  rough-natured  man,  a 
ship-carpenter  by  trade,  and  a  mariner  of  experience ;  states- 
manship and  diplomacy  were  not  his  proper  business.  A 
wise  head  as  well  as  a  strong  hand  was  needed  at  the  helm 
of  Massachusetts  just  at  that  juncture.  But  he  did  not  pre- 
vent the  legislature  from  passing  some  good  laws,  and  from 
renewing  the  life  of  New  England  towns,  which  had  been 
suppressed  by  Andros.  The  new  charter  had  greatly  en- 
larged the  Massachusetts  domain,  which  now  extended  over 
the  northern  and  eastern  regions  that  included  Maine;  but, 
as  we  shall  presently  see,  the  obligation  to  defend  this  terri- 
tory against  the  French  and  Indians  cost  the  colony  much 
more  than  could  be  recompensed  by  any  benefit  they  got 
from  it.  Phips  captured  Port  Royal,  but  failed  to  take 
Quebec.  The  legislature,  advised  by  the  public-spirited 


264  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES 

Elisha  Cooke,  kept  the  royal  officials  in  hand  by  refusing 
to  vote  them  permanent  salaries  or  regular  revenues.  Bel- 
lomont  succeeded  Phips,  and  Dudley,  in  1702,  followed 
Bellomont,  upon  the  solicitation  of  Cotton  Mather;  who 
long  ere  this,  in  his  "Book  of  Memorable  Providences,"  had 
shifted  all  blame  for  the  late  tragic  occurrences  from  his 
own  shoulders  to  those  of  the  Almighty.  Dudley  retained 
the  governorship  till  1715.  The  weight  of  what  authority 
he  had  was  on  the  side  of  restricting  charter  privileges ;  but 
he  could  produce  no  measurable  effect  in  retarding  the 
mighty  growth  of  liberty.  We  shall  not  meet  him  again. 
New  Hampshire  fully  maintained  her  reputation  for  in- 
tractability; and  the  general  drift  of  colonial  affairs  toward 
freedom  was  so  marked  as  to  become  a  common  subject  of 
remark  in  Europe.  Some  of  the  best  heads  there  began  to 
suggest  that  such  a  consummation  might  not  be  inexpedi- 
ent. But  before  England  and  her  Colonies  were  to  try 
their  strength  against  one  another,  there  were  to  occur 
the  four  colonial  wars,  by  which  the  colonists  were  un- 
wittingly trained  to  meet  their  most  formidable  and  their 
final  adversary. 


CHAPTER   TENTH 

FIFTY  YEARS  OF  FOOLS  AND  HEROES 


thieves  fall  out,  honest  men  come  by  thei? 
own.  The  first  clause  of  this  sentence  may 
serve  to  describe  the  Colonial  Wars  in  Amer- 
ica; the  second,  to  point  the  moral  of  the 
American  Revolution. 

Columbus,  and  the  other  great  mariners  of 
the  Fifteenth  and  Sixteenth  Centuries,  might  claim  for  their 
motives  an  admixture,  at  least,  of  thoughts  higher  than  mere 
material  gain  :  the  desire  to  enlarge  knowledge,  to  win  glory, 
to  solve  problems.  But  the  patrons  and  proprietors  of  the 
adventurers  had  an  eye  single  to  profit.  To  make  money 
was  their  aim.  In  overland  trading  there  was  small  profit 
and  scanty  business;  but  the  opening  of  the  sea  as  a  path  to 
foreign  countries,  and  a  revelation  of  their  existence—  and 
of  the  fortuitous  fact  that  they  were  inhabited  by  savages 
who  could  not  defend  themselves  —  completely  transformed 
the  situation. 

Ships  could  bring  in  months  more  —  a  hundred-fold  more 
merchandise  than  caravans  could  transport  in  years;  and  the 
expenses  of  carriage  were  niininiized.  Goods  thus  placed  hi 
the  market  could  be  sold  at  a  vast  profit.  This  was  the  first 
obvious  fact.  Secondly,  this  profit  could  be  made  to  inure  ex- 
clusively to  that  country  whose  ships  made  the  discovery,  by 
the  simple  device  of  claiming,  as  integral  parts  of  the  king- 
dom, whatever  new  lands  they  discovered;  the  shipe  of  all 
other  nations  could  then  be  forbidden  to  trade  there.  Third- 
U.S.—  12  VOL.  I. 


266  HISTORY    OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

ly,  colonists  could  be  sent  out,  who  would  serve  a  double 
use: — tbey  would  develop  and  export  the  .products  of  the 
new  country ;  and  they  would  constitute  an  ever-increasing 
market  for  the  exports  of  the  home  country. 

Su«jh  was  the  ideal.  To  realize  it,  three  things  were 
necessary:  first,  that  the  natives — the  "heathen" — should  be 
dominated,  and  either  converted  or  exterminated ;  next,  that 
the  fiat  of  exclusion  against  other  nations  should  be  made 
good;  and  finally  (most  vital  of  all,  though  the  last  to  be 
considered),  that  the  colonists  themselves  should  forfeit  all 
but  a  fraction  of  their  personal  interests  in  favor  of  the 
monopolists  at  home. 

Now,  as  to  the  heathen,  some  of  them,  like  the  Caribbe- 
ans,  could  be — and  by  Spanish  methods,  they  were — exter- 
minated. Others,  such  as  the  Mexican  and  Central  and 
South  American  tribes,  could  be  in  part  killed  off,  in  part 
"converted"  as  it  was  called.  Others  again,  like  the  In- 
dians of  North  America,  could  neither  be  converted  nor 
exterminated ;  but  they  could  be  in  a  measure  conciliated, 
and  they  could  always  be  fought.  The  general  result  was 
that  the  natives  co-operated  to  a  certain  extent  in  providing 
articles  for  export  (chiefly  furs),  and  on  the  other  hand,  de- 
layed colonization  by  occasionally  massacring  the  first  small 
groups  of  colonists.  In  the  long  run  however  most  of  them 
.disappeared,  so  far  as  power  either  for  use  or  for  offense  was 
concerned. 

The  attempt  of  the  several  colonizing  powers  to  make 
their  rivals  keep  out  of  their  preserves  was  not  successful. 
Piracy,  smuggling,  privateering,  and  open  war  were  the 
answers  of  the  nations  to  one  another's  inhibitions,  though, 
all  the  while,  none  of  them  questioned  the  correctness  of  the 
excluding  principle.  Each  of  them  practiced  it  themselves, 
though  trying  to  defeat  its  practice  by  others.  Portugal,  the 
first  of  the  foreign-trading  and  monopolizing  nations,  was 
early  forced  out  of  the  business  by  more  powerful  rivals ; 
Holland  was  the  first  to  call  the  principle  itself  in  question, 


FIFTY  YEARS  OF  FOOLS  AND  HEROES         267 

and  to  fight  in  the  cause  of  free  commerce;  though  even  she 
had  her  little  private  treasure- box  in  Java.  Spain's  com- 
merce was,  during  the  next  centuries,  seriously  impaired  by 
the  growing  might  of  England.  Prance  was  the  next  to 
suffer;  and  finally  England,  after  meeting  with  much  oppo- 
sition from  her  own  colonies,  was  called  upon  to  confront  a 
European  coalition;  and  while  she  was  putting  forth  her 
strength  to  overcome  that,  her  colonies  revolted,  and  achieved 
their  independence.  Such  was  the  history  and  fate  of  the 
colonial  system;  though  Spain  still  retained  much  of  her 
American  possessions  (owing  to  peculiar  conditions)  for 
years  afterward. 

But  England  might  have  retained  her  settlements  too,  so 
far  as  Europe  was  concerned;  the  real  cause  of  her  discom- 
fiture lay  in  the  fact  that  her  colonists  were  mainly  people  of 
her  own  blood,  all  of  them  with  an  inextinguishable  love  of 
liberty,  which  was  fostered  and  confirmed  by  their  marriage 
with  the  wilderness ;  and  many  of  whom  were  also  actuated 
by  considerations  of  religion  and  conscience,  the  value  of 
which  they  placed  above  everything  else.  They  wished  to 
be  "loyal,"  but  they  would  not  surrender  what  they  termed 
innate  rights ;  they  would  not  be  taxed  without  representa- 
tion, nor  be  debarred  from  manufacturing;  nor  consent  to 
make  England  their  sole  depot  and  source  of  supplies.  They 
would  not  surrender  their  privilege  to  be  gorerned  by  rep- 
resentatives elected  by  themselves.  England,  as  we  have 
seen,  contended  against  this  spirit  by  all  manner  of  more  or 
less  successful  enactments  and  acts  of  despotism ;  until  at  last, 
near  the  opening  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  it  became  evi- 
dent to  a  few  far-seeing  persons  on  both  sides  that  the  matter 
could  only  be  settled  by  open  force.  But  this  method  of  ar- 
bitrament was  postponed  for  half  a  century  by  the  Colonial 
Wars,  which  made  of  the  colonists  a  united  people,  and  edu- 
cated them,  from  farmers  and  traders,  into  a  military  nation. 
Then  the  war  came,  and  the  United  States  was  its  conse- 
quence. 


268  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES 

The  Colonial  Wars  were  between  England  on  one  side, 
and  Spain  and  France  on  the  other.  Spain  was  not  a  seri- 
ous foe,  or  obstacle ;  England  had  no  special  hankering  after 
Florida  and  Mexico,  and  she  knew  nothing  about  the  great 
Californian  region.  But  France  harried  her  on  the  north,  and 
pushed  her  back  on  the  west,  the  first  collisions  in  this  direc. 
tion  occurring  at  the  Alleghanies  and  along  the  Ohio  River. 
France  had  discovered,  claimed,  and  in  a  certain  sense  occu- 
pied, a  huge  wedge  of  the  present  United  States :  an  area 
which  (apart  from  Canada)  extended  from  Maine  to  Oregon, 
and  down  in  converging  lines  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  They 
called  it  Louisiana.  The  story  of  the  men  who  explored  it 
is  a  story  of  heroism,  devotion,  energy  and  sublime  courage 
perhaps  unequaled  in  the  history  of  the  world.  But  France 
failed  to  follow  up  these  men  with  substantial  colonies.  Colo- 
nies could  not  help  the  fur  trade  at  the  north,  and  the  climate 
there  was  anything  but  attractive ;  and  mishaps  of  various 
kinds  prevented  the  colonizing  of  the  great  Mississippi  valley. 
There  was  a  little  French  settlement  near  the  mouths  of  that 
river,  the  descendants  of  which  still  give  character  to  New 
Orleans ;  but  the  rest  of  the  enormous  triangle  was  occupied 
chiefly  by  missionaries  and  trappers,  and,  during  the  wars, 
with  the  operating  military  forces.  France  would  have  made 
a  far  less  effective  resistance  than  she  did,  had  she  not  ob- 
served, from  the  first,  the  policy  of  allying  herself  with  the 
Indian  tribes,  and  even  incorporating  them  with  herself.  All 
converted  Indians  were  French  citizens  by  law ;  the  French 
soldiers  and  settlers  intermarried  to  a  large  extent  with  the 
red  men,  and  the  half-breed  became  almost  a  race  of  itself. 
The  savages  took  much  more  kindly  to  the  picturesque  and 
emotional  Church  of  Rome  than  to  the  gloomy  severities  of 
the  Puritan  Calvinists;  the  "praying  Indians'*  were  numer- 
ous ;  and  the  Cross  became  a  real  link  between  the  red  men 
and  the  white.  This  fact  was  of  immense  value  in  the  wars 
with  the  English ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  neutrality  or 
active  friendliness  of  a  group  of  tribes  whom  the  Jesuit  mis- 


FIFTY  YEARS  OF  FOOLS  AND  HEROES         269 

sionaries  had  failed  to  win,  the  English  colonies  might  have 
been  quite  obliterated.  The  policy  of  employing  savages  in 
warfare  between  civilized  states  was  denounced  then  and 
afterward;  it  led  to  the  perpetration  of  sickening  barbari- 
ties; but  it  was  France's  only  chance,  and,  speaking  practi- 
cally, it  was  hardly  avoidable.  Besides,  the  English  did  not 
hesitate  to  enlist  Indians  on  their  side,  when  they  could. 
Had  the  savages  fought  after  the  manner  of  the  white  men, 
it  would  have  been  well  enough ;  but  on  the  contrary,  they 
imposed  their  methods  upon  the  whites;  and  most  of  the 
conflicts  had  more  of  the  character  of  massacres  than  of  bat- 
tles. Women  and  children  were  mercilessly  slain,  or  carried 
into  captivity.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  Ameri- 
can continent,  at  that  time,  did  not  admit  of  such  tactics  as 
were  employed  in  Europe — as  Braddock  found  to  his  cost; 
operations  must  be  chiefly  by  ambuscade  and  surprise ;  when 
the  town  or  the  fort  was  captured,  it  was  not  easy  to  restrain 
the  wild  men;  and  if  they  plied  the  tomahawk  without  re- 
gard to  sex  or  age,  the  white  soldiers,  little  less  savage,  read- 
ily learned  to  follow  their  example.  After  all,  the  wars  were 
necessarily  for  extermination,  and  there  is  no  better  way  to 
exterminate  a  people — as  Spain  has  uniformly  shown  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end  of  her  history — than  by  murdering 
their  women  and  children.  They  are  "innocent,"  no  doubt, 
so  far  as  active  hostilities  are  concerned ;  but  they  breed,  or 
become,  men  and  thereby  threaten  the  future.  Moreover, 
not  a  few  of  the  women  did  deeds  of  warlike  valor  them- 
selves. It  was  a  savage  time,  and  war  has  its  hideous  side 
always,  and  in  this  period  seemed  to  have  hardly  any  other. 
The  pioneering  on  this  continent  of  the  Spanish  and  the 
French,  though  in  itself  a  captivating  story,  cannot  prop- 
erly be  dwelt  on  in  a  history  of  the  growth  of  the  Amer- 
ican principle.  Ponce  de  Leon  traversed  Florida  in  the 
first  quarter  of  the  Sixteenth  Century,  hunting  for  the 
Fountain  of  Immortality,  and  finding  death.  Hernandc  de 
Soto  wandered  over  the  area  of  several  of  our  present  South- 


270  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES 

ern  States,  and  discovered  the  lower  reaches  of  the  Missis- 
sippi; he  was  a  man  of  blood,  and  his  blood  was  shed. 
Some  score  of  years  later  Spaniards  massacred  the  Hugue- 
not colony  at  St.  Augustine,  and  built  that  oldest  of  Ameri- 
can cities.  Beyond  this,  on  the  Atlantic  slope,  they  never 
proceeded,  having  enough  to  do  further  south.  But  they 
lay  claim,  even  in  these  closing  years  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century,  to  the  entire  American  continent — "if  they  had 
their  rights." 

The  French  began  their  American  career  with  an  Italian 
employe,  Verrazano,  who  spied  out  the  coast  from  Florida  to 
Newfoundland  in  1524.  Then  Cartier  peered  into  the  wide 
mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  tried  to  get  to  India  by  that 
route,  but  got  no  further  than  the  present  Montreal.  In  the 
next  century,  Champlain,  one  of  the  great  explorers  and 
the  first  governor  of  Canada,  laid  the  corner-stone  of  Que- 
bec ;  it  became  at  once  the  center  of  Canadian  trade  which  it 
has  ever  since  remained.  This  was  in  1608.  In  respect 
of  enterprise  as  explorers,  the  French  easily  surpassed  the 
farm-loving,  home-building,  multiplying  colonists  of  Eng- 
land. But  England  took  advantage  of  French  discoveries, 
and  stayed,  and  prevailed.  God  makes  men  help  each  other 
in  their  own  despite. 

Richelieu  said  in  1627  that  the  name,  New  France,  desig- 
nated the  whole  continent  of  America  from  the  North  Pole 
down  to  Florida.  The  Jesuits,  who  arose  as  a  counteract- 
ing force  to  Luther  and  the  Reformation,  supplanted  the 
Franciscans  as  missionaries  among  the  heathen,  and  per- 
formed what  can  only  be  called  prodigies  of  self-sacrifice 
and  intrepidity.  Loyola  was  a  worthy  antagonist  of  Cal- 
vin, and  the  first  achievements  of  his  followers  were  the 
more  striking.  But  the  magnificent  exploits  of  these  men 
were  not  the  preliminary  of  commensurate  colonization. 
The  spirit  of  Calvin  inspired  large  bodies  of  men  and 
women  to  establish  themselves  in  the  wilderness  in  order 
to  cultivate  his  doctrines  without  interference ;  the  spirit  of 


FIFTY  YEARS  OF  FOOLS  AND  HEROES         271 

Loyola  embodied  no  new  religious  principle;  it  simply  kin- 
dled individuals  to  fresh  exertions  to  promulgate  the  un- 
changing dogmas  of  the  Roman  Church.  The  Jesuits  were 
leaders  without  followers;  their  mission  was  to  bring  the 
Church  to  the  heathen,  and  the  heathen  into  the  Church; 
and  the  impressiveness  of  their  activity  was  due  to  the  dar- 
ing and  faith  which  pitted  units  against  thousands,  and 
refused  to  accept  defeat.  They  were  the  knight-errantry  of 
religion.  The  fame  of  their  deeds  inspired  enthusiasm  in 
France,  so  that  noble  women  gave  up  their  luxurious  lives, 
for  the  sake  of  planting  faith  in  the  inhospitable  immensities 
of  the  Canadian  forests ;  but  the  mass  of  the  common  people 
were  not  stimulated  or  attracted ;  the  profits  of  the  fur-trade 
employed  but  a  handful;  and  the  blood  of  the  Jesuit  mar- 
tyrs— none  more  genuine  ever  died' — was  poured  out  almost 
without  practical  results.  Our  estimate  of  human  nature  is 
exalted;  but  there  are  no  happy  communities  to-day  which 
owe  their  existence  to  the  Jesuit  pioneers.  The  priests  them- 
selves were  wifeless  and  childless,  and  the  family  hearth- 
stone could  not  be  planted  on  the  sites  of  their  immolations 
and  triumphs.  Nor  were  the  disciples  of  Loyola  aided,  as 
were  the  Calvinists,  by  persecution  at  home.  All  alike  were 
good  Catholics.  But  had  the  Jesuits  advocated  but  a  single 
principle  of  human  freedom,  France  might  have  been  mis- 
tress of  America  to-day. 

So,  under  the  One  Hundred  Assistants,  as  the  French 
colonizing  Company  of  the  early  Seventeenth  Century  was 
called,  missions  were  dotted  throughout  the  loneliness  and 
terror  of  the  wilderness;  Brebceuf  and  Daniel  did  their 
work  and  met  their  fate ;  Raymbault  carried  the  cross  to 
Lake  Superior;  Gabriel  Dreuilettes  came  down  the  Kenne- 
bec ;  Jogues  was  tortured  by  the  Mohawks ;  Lallemand  shed 
his  blood  serenely ;  Chaumont  and  Dablon  built  their  chapel 
where  now  stands  Syracuse;  and  after  all,  there  stood  the 
primeval  forests,  pathless  as  before,  and  the  red  men  were 
but  partially  and  transiently  affected.  The  Hundred  Assist- 


272  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

ants  were  dissolved,  and  a  new  colonial  organization  was 
operating  in  1664;  soldiers  were  sent  over,  and  the  Jesuits, 
still  unweariedly  in  the  van,  pushed  westward  to  Michigan, 
and  Marquette  and  Joliet,  two  young  men  of  thirty-six  and 
twenty-seven,  discovered  the  Mississippi,  and  descended  it 
as  far  as  Des  Monies ;  but  still,  all  the  inhabitants  of  New 
France  could  easily  have  mustered  in  a  ten-acre  field.  Then, 
in  1666  came  Robert  Cavelier  La  Salle,  a  cadet  of  a  good 
family,  educated  in  a  Jesuit  seminary,  but  destined  to  incur 
the  enmity  of  the  order,  and  at  last  to  perish,  not  indeed  at 
their  hands,  but  in  consequence  of  conditions  largely  due  to 
them.  The  towering  genius  of  this  young  man — he  was  but 
just  past  his  majority  when  he  came  to  Montreal,  and  he 
was  murdered  by  his  treacherous  traveling  companion, 
Duhaut,  on  a  branch  of  Trinity  River  in  Texas,  before  he 
had  reached  the  age  of  five  and  forty — his  indomitable  cour- 
age, his  tact  and  firmness  in  dealing  with  all  kinds  of  men, 
from  the  Grand  Monarch  to  the  humblest  savage,  his  great 
thoughts  and  his  wonderful  exploits,  his  brilliant  fortune 
and  his  appalling  calamities,  both  of  which  he  met  with  an 
equal  mind: — these  qualities  and  the  events  which  displayed 
them  make  La  Salle  the  peer,  at  least,  of  any  of  his  country- 
men of  that  age.  What  must  be  the  temper  of  a  man  who, 
after  encountering  and  overcoming  incredible  opposition, 
after  being  the  victim  of  unrelenting  misfortune,  including 
loss  of  means,  friends,  and  credit,  of  deadly  fevers,  of  ship- 
wreck,— could  rise  to  his  feet  amid  the  destruction  of  all 
that  he  had  labored  for  twenty  years  to  build  up,  and  confi- 
dently and  cheerfully  undertake  the  enterprise  of  traveling 
on  foot  from  Galveston  in  Texas  to  Montreal  in  Canada,  to 
ask  for  help  to  re-establish  his  colony?  It  is  a  formidable 
journey  to-day,  with  all  the  appliances  of  steam  and  the  lux- 
ury of  food  and  accommodation  that  science  and  ingenuity 
can  frame ;  it  would  be  a  portentous  trip  for  the  most  accom- 
plished modern  pedestrian,  assisted  though  he  would  be  by 
roads,  friendly  wayside  inns  and  farms,  maps  of  the  route, 


FIFTY  YEARS  OF  FOOLS  AND  HEROES         275 

and  hobnailed  walking  boots.  La  Salle  undertook  it  with 
thousands  of  miles  of  uncharted  wilderness  before  him, 
through  tribes  assumed  to  be  hostile  till  they  proved  them- 
selves otherwise,  with  doubtful  and  quarreling  compan- 
ions, and  shod  with  moccasins  of  green  hide.  Even  of  the 
Frenchmen  whom  he  might  meet  after  reaching  Illinois,  the 
majority,  being  under  Jesuit  influence,  would  be  hostile. 
But  he  had  faced  and  conquered  difficulties  as  great  as 
these,  and  he  had  no  fear.  At  the  time  the  scoundrel 
Duhaut  shot  him  from  ambush,  he  was  making  hopeful 
progress.  But  it  was  decreed  that  France  was  not  to  stay 
in  America.  La  Salle  discovered  the  Ohio  and  the  Illinois, 
built  Fort  Crevecoeur,  and  started  a  colony  on  the  coast  of 
Texas ;  he  received  a  patent  of  nobility,  and  lost  his  fortune 
and  his  life.  The  pathos  of  such  a  death  lies  in  the  consider- 
ation that  his  plans  died  with  him.  It  was  the  year  before 
the  accession  of  William  of  Orange ;  and  the  first  war  with 
France  began  two  years  later. 

France,  after  all  drawbacks,  was  far  from  being  a  foe 
to  be  slighted.  The  English  colonists  outnumbered  hers, 
but  hers  were  all  soldiers ;  they  had  trained  the  Indians  to 
the  use  of  firearms,  had  taught  them  how  to  build  forts, 
and  by  treating  them  as  equals,  had  won  the  confidence  and 
friendship  of  many  of  them.  The  English  colonies,  on  the 
other  hand,  had  as  yet  no  idea  of  co-operation ;  each  had  its 
own  ideas  and  ways  of  existence;  they  had  never  met  and 
formed  acquaintance  with  one  another  through  a  common 
congress  of  representatives.  They  were  planters,  farmers 
and  merchants,  with  no  further  knowledge  of  war  than  was 
to  be  gained  by  repelling  the  attacks  of  savages,  and  retali- 
ating in  kind.  They  had  the  friendship  of  the  Five  Nations, 
and  they  received  help  from  English  regiments.  But  the 
latter  had  no  experience  of  forest  fighting,  and  made  several 
times  the  fatal  mistake  of  undervaluing  their  enemy,  as  well 
as  clinging  to  impracticable  formations  and  tactics.  The 
English  officers  did  not  conceal  their  contempt  for  the  "pro- 


274  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES 

vincia.  '  troops,  who  were  not,  indeed,  comely  to  look  at 
from  the  conventional  military  standpoint,  but  who  bore  the 
brunt  of  the  fighting,  won  most  of  the  successes,  and  were 
entirely  capable  of  resenting  the  slights  to  which  they  were 
unjustly  subjected.  "What  was  quite  as  important,  bearing 
in  mind  what  was  to  happen  in  1775,  they  learned  to  gauge 
the  British  fighting  capacity,  and  did  not  fear,  when  the 
time  came,  to  match  themselves  against  it. 

King  William's  War  lasted  from  1689  to  1697.  Louis 
XIV.  had  refused  to  recognize  William  as  a  legitimate  king 
of  England,  and  undertook  to  champion  the  cause  of  the 
dethroned  James.  The  conduct  of  the  war  in  Europe  doea 
not  belong  to  our  inquiry.  The  proper  course  for  the  French 
to  have  adopted  in  America  would  have  been  to  encourage 
the  English  colonies  to  revolt  against  the  king;  but  the 
statesmanship  of  that  age  had  not  conceived  the  idea  of 
colonial  independence.  Besides,  the  colonies  would  not  at 
that  epoch  have  fallen  in  with  the  scheme ;  they  might  have 
been  influenced  to  rise  against  a  Stuart,  but  not  against  a 
William.  There  was  no  general  plan  of  campaign  on  either 
side.  There  was  no  question  as  yet  about  the  western  bor- 
ders. There  was  but  one  point  of  contact  of  New  France 
and  the  English  colonies — the  northern  boundaries  of  New 
England  and  New  York.  The  position  of  the  English, 
strung  along  a  thousand  miles  of  the  Atlantic  coast,  did 
not  favor  concentration  against  the  enemy,  and  still  less 
was  it  possible  for  the  latter,  with  their  small  force,  to 
march  south  and  overrun  the  country.  What  could  be  done 
then?  Obviously,  nothing  but  to  make  incursions  across 
the  line,  after  the  style  of  the  English  and  Scottish  border 
warfare.  Nothing  could  be  gained,  except  the  making  of 
each  other  miserable.  But  that  was  enough,  since  two 
kings,  neither  of  whom  any  of  the  combatants  had  seen, 
were  angry  with  each  other  three  thousand  miles  away. 
Louis  does  not  admit  the  right  of  William,  doesn't  he? — 
says  the  Massachusetts  farmer  to  the  Canadian  coureur 


FIFTY  YEARS  OF  FOOLS  AND  HEROES         275 

des  bois;  and  without  more  ado  they  fly  at  each  others' 
throats. 

The  successes,  such  as  they  were,  were  chiefly  on  the 
side  of  the  French.  Small  parties  of  Indians,  or  of  French 
and  Indians  combined,  would  steal  down  upon  the  New 
York  and  New  England  farms  and  villages,  suddenly  leap 
out  upon  the  man  and  his  sons  working  in  their  clearings, 
upon  the  woman  and  her  children  in  the  hut:  a  whoop,  a 
popping  of  musket  shots  and  whistling  of  arrows,  then  the 
vicious  swish  and  crash  of  the  murderous  tomahawk,  fol- 
lowed by  the  dexterous  twist  of  the  seal  ping-knife,  and  the 
snatching  of  the  tuft  of  hair  from  the  bleeding  skull.  That 
is  all — but,  no :  there  still  remains  a  baby  or  two  who  must 
be  caught  up  by  the  leg,  and  have  its  brains  dashed  out  on 
the  door- jamb;  and  if  any  able-bodied  persons  survive,  they 
are  to  be  loaded  with  their  own  household  goods,  and  driven 
hundreds  of  miles  over  snows,  or  through  heats,  to  Canada, 
as  slaves.  Should  they  drop  by  the  way,  as  Mrs.  "Williams 
did,  down  comes  the  tomahawk  again.  Or  perhaps  a  Mrs. 
Dustin  learns  how  to  use  the  weapon  so  as  to  kill  at  a  blow, 
and  that  night  puts  her  knowledge  to  the  proof  on  the  skulls 
of  ten  sleeping  savages,  and  so  escapes.  Occasionally  there 
is  a  more  important  massacre,  like  that  at  Schenectady,  or 
Deerfield.  But  these  Indian  surprises  are  not  only  revolt- 
ing, but  monotonous  to  weariness,  and,  as  they  accom- 
plished nothing  but  a  given  number  of  murders,  there  is 
nothing  to  be  learned  from  them.  They  are  meaningless; 
and  we  can  hardly  imagine  even  the  Grand  Monarch,  or 
"William  of  Orange,  being  elated  or  depressed  by  their 
details. 

There  were  no  French  farms  or  small  villages  to  be  at- 
tacked in  requital,  so  it  was  necessary  for  the  English  to 
proceed  against  Port  Royal  or  Quebec.  The  aged  but  blood- 
thirsty Frontenac  was  governor  of  Canada  at  this  time,  and 
proved  himself  able  (aided  by  the  imbecility  of  the  attack) 
to  defend  it.  In  March  of  1690  a  sort  of  congress  had  met 


276  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

at  Albany,  which  sent  word  to  the  several  colonial  govern- 
ors to  dispatch  commissioners  to  Rhode  Island  for  a  general 
conference  for  adopting  measures  of  defense  and  offense. 
The  delegates  met  in  May  or  the  last  of  April,  at  New  York, 
and  decided  to  conquer  Canada  by  a  two-headed  campaign; 
one  army  to  go  by  way  of  Lake  Champlain  to  Montreal, 
while  a  fleet  should  proceed  against  Quebec.  Sir  William 
Phips  of  Massachusetts  was  off  to  Port  Royal  within  four 
weeks,  and  took  it  without  an  effort,  there  being  hardly  any 
one  to  defend  it.  But  Leisler  of  New  York  and  Winthrop 
of  Connecticut  quarreled  at  Lake  Champlain,  and  that  part 
of  the  plan  came  to  a  disgraceful  end  forthwith.  A  month 
or  so  later,  Phips  was  blundering  pilotless  into  the  St.  Law- 
rence, with  two  thousand  Massachusetts  men  on  thirty-four 
vessels.  Their  coming  had  been  prepared  for,  and  when 
they  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  impregnable  fortress, 
with  a  garrison  more-  numerous  than  themselves,  they  were 
answered  with  jeers;  and  it  is  painful  to  add  that  they 
turned  round  and  set  out  for  home  again  without  striking 
a  blow.  A  storm  completed  their  discomfiture;  and  when 
Phips  at  last  brought  what  was  left  of  his  fleet  into  harbor, 
he  found  the  treasury  empty,  and  was  forced  to  issue  paper 
money  to  pay  his  bills. 

No  further  talk  of  "On  to  Quebec"  was  heard  for  some 
time.  Port  Royal  was  retaken  by  a  French  vessel.  Parties, 
of  Indians,  encouraged  by  the  Jesuits,  again  stole  over  the 
border  and  did  the  familiar  work.  Schuyler,  on  the  English 
side,  succeeded  in  making  a  successful  foray  in  1691 ;  aud  a 
fort  was  built  at  Pemaquid — to  be  taken,  five  years  after- 
ward, by  Iberville  and  Castin.  In  1693  an  English  fleet, 
which  had  been  beaten  at  Martinique,  came  to  Boston  with 
orders  to  conquer  Canada;  but  as  it  was  manned  by  warriors 
half  of  whom  were  dying  of  malignant  yellow  fever,  Canada 
was  spared  once  more.  The  only  really  formidable  enemies 
that  Frontenac  could  discover  were  the  Five  Nations,  whom 
he  tried  in  vain  to  frighten  or  to  conciliate.  He  himself,  at 


FIFTY  YEARS  OF  FOOLS  AND  HEROES         277 

the  age  of  seventy-four,  headed  the  last  expedition  against 
them,  in  the  summer  of  1696.  It  returned  without  having 
accomplished  anything  except  the  burning  of  villages  and  the 
laying  waste  of  lands.  The  following  year  peace  was  signed 
at  Ryswick,  a  village  in  South  Holland.  France  had  done 
well  in  the  field  and  by  negotiations;  but  England  had  sus- 
tained no  serious  reverses,  and  having  borrowed  money  from 
a  group  of  private  capitalists,  whom  it  chartered  as  the  Bank 
of  England  in  1694,  was  financially  stronger  than  ever. 
Louis  accepted  the  results  of  the  English  Revolution,  but 
kept  his  American  holdings;  and  the  boundaries  between 
these  and  the  English  colonies  were  not  settled.  The  Five 
Nations  were  not  pacified  till  1700.  The  French  continued 
their  occupation  of  the  Mississippi  basin,  and  in  1699  Lemoine 
Iberville  sailed  for  the  Mississippi,  and  built  a  fort  on  the  bay 
of  Biloxi.  Communication  was  now  established  between  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  and  Quebec.  The  English,  through  the  agency 
of  a  New  Jerseyman  named  Coxe,  and  a  forged  journal  of 
exploration  by  Hennepin,  tried  to  get  a  foothold  on  the  great 
river,  but  the  attempt  was  fruitless.  Fruitless,  likewise,  were 
French  efforts  to  find  gold,  or,  indeed,  to  establish  a  substan- 
tial colony  themselves  in  the  feverish  Louisiana  region.  Iber- 
ville caught  the  yellow  plague  and  never  fully  recovered ;  and 
the  desert-girded  fort  at  Mobile  seemed  a  small  result  for  so 
much  exertion. 

In  truth,  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  peace  existed  no- 
where except  on  the  paper  signed  at  Ryswick;  and  in  1702 
William  saw  that  he  must  either  fight  again,  or  submit  to  a 
union  between  France  and  Spain,  Louis  XIV.  becoming,  by 
the  death  without  issue  of  the  Spanish  king,  sovereign  of 
both  countries,  to  the  upsetting  of  the  European  balance  of 
power.  Spain  had  become  a  nonentity ;  she  had  no  money, 
no  navy,  no  commerce,  no  manufactures,  and  a  population 
reduced  by  emigration,  and  by  the  expulsion  of  Jews  and 
Moors,  to  about  seven  millions :  nothing  remained  to  her  but 
that  "pride"  of  which  she  was  always  so  solicitous,  based 


278  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

as  it  was  upon  her  achievements  as  a  robber,  a  murderer,  a 
despot  and  a  bigot.  She  now  had  no  king,  which  was  the 
least  of  her  losses,  but  gave  her  the  power  of  disturbing 
Europe  by  lapsing  to  the  French  Bourbons. 

William  himself  was  close  to  death,  and  died  before  the 
opening  year  of  the  war  was  over.  Louis  was  alive,  and 
was  to  remain  alive  for  thirteen  years  longer;  but  he  was 
sixty-four,  was  becoming  weary  and  discouraged,  and  had 
lost  his  ministers  and  generals.  On  the  English  side  was 
Marlborough ;  and  the  battle  of  Blenheim,  not  to  speak  of 
the  European  combination  against  France,  showed  how  the 
game  was  going.  But  the  peace  of  Utrecht  in  1713,  though 
it  lasted  thirty  years,  was  not  based  on  justice,  and  could 
not  stand.  Spain  was  deprived  of  her  possessions  in  the 
Netherlands,  but  was  allowed  to  keep  her  colonies,  and  the 
loss  of  Gibraltar  confirmed  her  hatred  of  England.  Belgium, 
Antwerp  and  Austria  were  wronged,  and  France  was  in- 
sulted by  the  destruction  of  Dunkirk  harbor.  England  em- 
barked with  her  whole  heart  in  the  African  slave  trade, 
securing  the  monopoly  of  importing  negroes  into  the  "West 
Indies  for  thirty  years,  and  being  the  exclusive  dealer  in 
the  same  commodity  along  the  Atlantic  coast.  Half  the 
stock  in  the  business  was  owned  by  the  English  people,  and 
the  other  half  was  divided  equally  between  Queen  Anne 
and  Philip  of  Spain.  The  profits  were  enormous.  Mean- 
while the  treaty  between  Spain  and  England  allowed  and 
legitimatized  the  smuggling  operations  of  the  latter  in  the 
West  Indies,  a  measure  which  was  sure  to  involve  our  colo- 
nies sooner  or  later  in  the  irrepressible  conflict.  England, 
again,  got  Hudson's  Bay,  Newfoundland,  Nova  Scotia,  but 
not  the  Mississippi  valley,  from  France.  Boundary  lines  were 
not  accurately  determined ;  and  could  not  be  until  the  wars 
between  1744  and  1763  finally  decided  these  and  other  mat' 
ters  in  England's  favor.  The  most  commendable  clause  in 
the  treaty  was  the  one  inserted  by  Bolingbroke  that  defined 
contraband,  and  the  rights  of  blockade,  and  laid  down  the 


FIFTY  YEARS  OF  FOOLS  AND  HEROES         279 

rule  that  free  ships  should  give  freedom  to  goods  carried 
in  them. 

Aime,  a  daughter  of  James  II.,  but  a  partisan  of  William, 
succeeded  him  in  1702  at  the  age  of  thirty-seven;  she  was 
herself  governed  by  the  Marlboroughs  and  Mrs.  Masham — 
an  intelligent  woman  of  humble  birth,  who  became  keeper 
of  her  majesty's  privy  purse.  The  war  which  the  queen 
inherited,  and  which  was  called  by  her  name,  lasted  till  the 
final  year  of  her  reign.  Only  New  England  on  the  north 
and  Carolina  on  the  south  were  participants  in  the  fray  on 
this  side,  and  no  great  glory  or  advantage  accrued  to  either. 
New  York  was  sheltered  by  the  neutrality  of  the  Five  Na- 
tions, and  Pennsylvania,  Virginia  and  the  rest  were  beyond 
the  reach  of  French  operations. 

The  force  raised  by  South  Carolina  to  capture  St.  Augus- 
tine had  expected  to  receive  cannon  for  the  siege  from  Ja- 
maica; but  the  cannon  failed  them,  and  they  retreated  with 
nothing  to  show  but  a  debt  which  they  liquidated  in  paper. 
They  had  better  luck  with  an  expedition  to  sever  the  Spanish 
line  of  communication  with  Louisiana;  the  Spanish  and  In- 
dians were  beaten  in  December,  1705,  and  the  neighboring 
inhabitants  along  the  Gulf  emigrated  to  South  Carolina. 
Then  the  French  set  out  to  take  Charleston ;  but  the  Hugue- 
nots were  mindful  of  St.  Bartholomew  and  of  the  revocation 
of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  and  they  set  upon  the  invaders  when 
they  landed,  and  slew  three  out  of  every  eight  of  them.  The 
South  Carolinians  were  let  alone  thereafter. 

In  the  north,  the  French  secured  the  neutrality  of  the 
Senecas,  but  the  English  failed  to  do  the  like  with  the 
Abenakis,  and  the  massacring  season  set  in  with  marked 
severity  on  the  Maine  border  in  the  summer  of  1703.  It 
was  in  the  ensuing  winter  that  the  Deerfield  affair  took 
place ;  the  crusted  snow  was  so  deep  that  it  not  only  gave 
the  French  and  Indian  war  party  good  walking  down  from 
Canada,  but  enabled  them  to  mount  up  the  drifts  against 
the  palisades  of  the  town  and  leap  down  inside.  The  senti- 


280  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

nels  were  not  on  guard  that  morning,  though,  warned  by 
the  Mohawks,  the  people  had  been  looking  for  the  attack  all 
winter  long.  "What  is  to  be  said  of  these  tragedies?  "When 
we  have  realized  the  awful  pang  in  a  mother's  heart,  wak- 
ened from  sleep  by  that  shrill,  triumphant  yell  of  the  Indian, 
and  knowing  that  in  a  moment  she  will  see  her  children's 
faces  covered  with  the  blood  and  brains  from  their  crushed 
skulls,  we  shall  have  nothing  more  to  learn  from  Indian 
warfare.  How  many  mothers  felt  that  pang  in  the  pale 
dawn  of  that  frosty  morning  in  Deerfield?  After  the  war 
party  had  done  the  work,  and  departed  exulting  with  their 
captives,  how  many  motionless  corpses,  in  what  ghastly  at- 
titudes, lay  huddled  in  the  darksome  rooms  of  the  little 
houses,  or  were  tossed  upon  the  trodden  snow  without,  the 
looks  of  mortal  agony  frozen  on  their  features?  But  you 
will  hear  the  howl  of  the  wolves  by-and-by;  and  the  black 
bear  will  come  shuffling  and  sniffing  through  the  broken 
doors;  and  when  the  frightful  feast  is  over,  there  will  be, 
in  place  of  these  poses  of  death,  only  disordered  heaps  of 
gnawed  bones,  and  shreds  of  garments  rent  asunder,  and 
the  grin  of  half-eaten  skulls.  Nothing  else  remains  of  a 
happy  and  innocent  community.  Why  were  they  killed? 
Had  they  harmed  their  killers?  "Was  any  military  advan- 
tage gained  by  their  death? — They  had  harmed  no  one,  and 
nothing  was  gained,  or  pretended  to  be  gained,  by  their 
murder:  nothing  except  to  establish  the  principle  that,  since 
two  countries  in  Europe  were  at  war,  those  emigrants  of 
theirs  who  had  voyaged  hither  in  quest  of  peace  and  hap- 
piness should  lie  in  wait  to  destroy  one  another.  Human 
sympathies  have,  sometimes,  strange  ways  of  avouching 
themselves. 

People  become  accustomed  even  to  massacre.  But  the 
children  born  in  these  years,  who  were  themselves  to  be 
the  fathers  and  mothers  of  the  generation  of  the  Revolu- 
tion, must  have  sucked  in  stern  and  fierce  qualities  with  the 
milk  from  their  mothers'  breasts.  No  one,  even  in  the  midst 


FIFTY  YEARS  OF  FOOLS  AND  HEROES         281 

of  Massachusetts,  was  safe  during  that  first  decade  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century.  A  single  Indian,  in  search  of  glory, 
would  spend  weeks  in  creeping  southward  from  the  far 
border;  he  would  await  his  chance  long  and  patiently;  he 
would  leap  out,  and  strike,  and  vanish  again,  leaving  that 
silent  horror  behind  him.  Suoh  deeds,  and  the  constant 
possibility  of  them,  left  their  mcuit  upon  the  whole  popula- 
tion. They  grew  up  familiar  with  violent  death  in  its  most 
terrible  forms.  The  effect  of  Indian  warfare  upon  the  nat- 
ures of  those  who  engage  in  it,  or  are  subjected  to  its  perils, 
is  different  from  that  of  what  we  must  call  civilized  fight- 
ing. The  end  as  well  as  the  aim  of  the  Indian's  battle  is 
death — a  scalp.  Murder  for  the  mere  pleasure  of  murdering 
has  an  influence  upon  a  community  far  more  sinister  than 
that  of  death  by  war  waged  for  recognizable  causes.  The 
Puritans  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  were  another  people 
than  those  of  the  Seventeenth.  There  had  been  reason  in 
the  early  Indian  struggles,  when  the  savages  might  have 
hoped  to  exterminate  the  settlers  and  leave  then*  wilderness 
a  wilderness  once  more;  but  there  could  be  no  such  hope 
now.  The  desire  for  revenge  was  awakened  and  fostered  as 
it  had  never  been  before.  Many  other  circumstances  com- 
bined to  modify  the  character  of  the  people  of  New  England 
during  this  century;  but  perhaps  this  new  capacity  for  re- 
venge was  not  the  least  potent  of  the  influences  that  made 
the  seven  years  of  the  Revolution  possible. 

Peter  Schuyler  protested  in  vain  against  the  "savage 
and^  boundless  butchery"  into  which  the  conflict  between 
*'  Christian  princes,  bound  to  the  exactest  laws  of  honor  and 
generosity,"  was  degenerating;  but  the  only  way  to  stop  it 
appeared  to  be  to  extirpate  the  perpetrators ;  and  to  that  end 
a  fifth  part  of  the  population  were  constantly  in  arms.  The 
musket  became  more  familiar  to  their  hands  than  the  plow 
and  spade;  and  their  marksmanship  was  near  perfection. 
They  gradually  developed  a  system  of  tactics  of  their  own, 
foreign  to  the  manuals.  The  first  thing  you  were  aware  of 


282  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

in  the  provincial  soldier  was  the  puff  of  smoke  from  the 
muzzle  of  his  weapon ;  almost  simultaneously  came  the  thud 
of  his  bullet  in  your  breast,  or  crashing  through  your  brain. 
He  loaded  his  gun  lying  on  his  back  beneath  the  ferns  and 
shrubbery;  he  advanced  or  retreated  invisibly,  from  tree  to 
tree.  Your  only  means  of  ^~timating  his  numbers  was  from 
your  own  losses.  It  was  thus  that  the  American  troops 
afterward  gained  their  reputation  of  being  almost  invincible 
behind  an  intrenchment ;  it  gave  its  character  to  the  en- 
gagements at  Concord  and  along  the  Boston  Road,  and  sent 
hundreds  of  redcoats  to  death  on  the  slopes  of  Bunker  Hill. 
It  was  not  magnificent — to  look  at;  but  it  was  war;  com- 
bined with  the  European  tactics  acquired  later  on,  it  survived 
reverses  that  would  have  driven  other  troops  from  the  field, 
and,  with  Washington  at  the  head,  won  our  independence 
at  last. 

The  least  revolting  feature  of  the  Indian  warfare  was  the 
habit  they  acquired,  through  French  suggestion  doubtless, 
of  taking  large  numbers  of  persons  captive,  and  carrying 
them  north.  If  they  weakened  on  the  journey,  they  were 
of  course  tomahawked  out  of  the  way  at  once;  but  if  they 
survived,  they  were  either  sold  as  slaves  to  the  Canadians, 
or  were  kept  by  the  Indians,  who  adopted  them  into  their 
tribes,  having  no  system  of  slavery.  Many  a  woman  and 
little  girl  from  New  England  became  the  mother  of  Indian 
children ;  and  when  the  captives  were  young  enough  at  the 
beginning,  they  generally  grew  to  love  the  wild  life  too  well 
to  leave  it.  Indeed,  they  were  generally  treated  well  by 
both  the  Canadians  and  the  Indians  after  they  got  to  their 
destination.  On  the  other  hand,  there  were  the  fathers  and 
mothers  and  relatives  of  the  lost  planning  their  redemption 
os  rescue,  and  raising  money  to  buy  them  back.  Many  a 
thrilling  tale  could  be  told  of  these  episodes.  But  we  must 
imagine  beautiful  young  women,  who  had  been  taken  away 
in  childhood,  found  after  years  of  heart-breaking  search  and 
asked  to  return  to  their  homes.  "What  was  their  home? 


FIFTY   YEARS   OF   FOOLS   AND   HEROES        283 

They  had  forgotten  New  England,  and  those  who  loved 
them  and  had  sorrowed  for  them  there.  The  eyes  of  these 
young  women,  clear  and  bright,  had  a  wildness  in  their  look 
that  is  never  seen  in  the  children  of  civilization ;  their  faces 
were  tanned  by  sun  and  breeze,  their  figures  lithe  and  ath- 
letic, their  dress  of  deerskin  and  wampum,  their  light  feet 
clad  in  moccasins;  their  tongues  and  ears  were  strange  to 
the  language  of  their  childhood  homes.  No:  they  would 
not  return.  Sometimes,  curiosity,  or  a  vague  expectation, 
would  induce  them  to  revisit  those  who  yearned  for  them ; 
but,  having  arrived,  they  received  the  embraces  of  their  own 
flesh  and  blood  shyly  and  coldly ;  they  were  stifled  and  ham- 
pered by  the  houses,  the  customs,  the  ordered  ways  of  white 
people's  existence.  A  night  must  come  when  they  would 
arise  silently,  resume  with  a  deep  in-breathing  of  delight  the 
deerskin  raiment,  and  be  gone  without  one  last  loving  look 
at  the  faces  of  those  who  had  given  them  life,  but  from 
whom  their  souls  were  forever  parted.  There  is  a  harrow- 
ing mystery  in  these  estrangements:  how  strong,  and  yet 
how  helpless  is  the  human  heart ;  all  the  world  cannot  break 
the  bonds  it  ties,  nor  can  all  the  world  tie  them  again,  once 
the  heart  itself  has  dissolved  them. 

Thus,  in  more  ways  than  one,  the  blood  of  the  English 
colonists  became  wedded  to  the  soil  of  the  wilderness,  if 
wilderness  the  settlements  could  now  be  called.  And  they 
became  like  the  captives  we  have  just  been  imagining,  who 
cared  no  longer  for  the  land  and  the  people  that  had  been 
their  home.  Not  more  because  they  were  estranged  by 
England's  behavior  than  because  they  had  formed  new  at- 
tachments beside  which  the  old  ones  seemed  pale,  were 
they  now  able  to  contemplate  with  composure  the  idea  of  a 
final  separation.  America  was  no  longer  England's  daugh- 
ter. She  had  acquired  a  life  of  her  own,  and  could  look 
forward  to  a  destiny  which  the  older  country  could  never 
share.  The  ways  of  the  two  had  parted  more  fully  than 
either,  as  yet,  quite  realized  j  and  if  they  were  ever  to  meet 


284  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

again  hereafter,  it  must  be  the  older,  and  not  the  younger, 
who  must  change. 

Apart  from  the  Indian  episodes,  little  was  done  until 
1710,  when  a  large  fleet  left  Boston  and  again  captured  Port 
Royal,  to  which  the  name  of  Annapolis  was  given  as  a  com- 
pliment to  the  snuffy  little  woman  who  sat  on  the  English 
throne.  This  success  was  made  the  basis  of  a  proposition  to 
put  an  end  to  the  development  of  the  French  settlements 
west  of  the  Alleghanies.  It  was  represented  to  the  English 
government  that  the  entire  Indian  population  in  the  west 
was  being  amalgamated  with  the  French;  the  Jesuits  en- 
snaring them  on  the  spiritual  side,  and  the  intermarrying 
system  on  the  other.  The  English  Secretary  of  State  was 
Bolingbroke — or  Saint-John  as  he  was  then — a  man  of  three 
and  thirty,  brilliant,  graceful,  gifted,  versatile ;  but  without 
principle  or  constancy,  who  never  emancipated  his  superb 
intellect  from  his  restless  and  sensuous  nature.  After  hear- 
ing what  the  American  envoys  had  to  say,  and  thinking  the 
matter  over,  Saint- John  made  up  his  mind  that  it  could  do 
no  harm,  as  a  beginning,  to  capture  Quebec;  and  that  being 
safe  in  English  hands,  the  rest  of  the  programme  could  be 
finished  at  leisure.  Seven  regiments  of  Marlborough's  vet- 
erans, the  best  soldiers  in  the  world  at  that  tune,  a  battalion 
of  marines,  and  fifteen  men-of-war,  were  intrusted  to  the 
utterly  incompetent  and  preposterous  Hovenden  Walker, 
with  the  not  less  absurd  Jack  Hill,  brother  of  Mrs.  Masham, 
as  second  in  command.  In  short,  the  expedition  was  what 
would  now  be  called  a  "job"  for  the  favorites  and  hang- 
ers-on of  the  Court ;  the  taking  of  the  Canadian  fortress  was 
deemed  so  easy  a  feat  that  even  fools  and  Merry- Andrews 
could  accomplish  it.  The  Americans  had  meantime  made 
their  preparations  to  co-operate  with  this  imposing  armada; 
an  army  of  colonists  and  Iroquois  were  at  Albany,  ready  for 
a  dash  on  Montreal.  But  week  after  week  passed  away, 
and  the  fleet,  having  got  to  Boston,  seemed  unable  to  get 
away  from  it.  No  doubt  Hovenden,  Hill  and  the  rest  of 


FIFTY  YEARS  OF  FOOLS  AND  HEROES         285 

the  rabble  were  enjoying  themselves  in  the  Puritan  capital. 
The  Boston  of  stern-visaged,  sad-garmented,  scripture-quot- 
ing men  and  women,  of  unpaved  streets  and  mean  houses, 
was  gone;  Boston  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  Eighteenth 
Century  was  a  city — a  place  of  gayety,  fashion  and  almost 
luxury.  The  scarlet  coats  of  the  British  officers  made  the 
narrow  but  briskly-moving  streets  brilliant ;  but  even  with- 
out them,  the  embroidered  coats,  silken  small  clothes  and 
clocked  stockings,  powdered  wigs  and  cocked  hats  of  the 
fine  gentlemen,  and  the  wide  hoops  and  imposing  head- 
dresses of  the  women,  made  a  handsome  show.  People  of 
many  nationalities  mingled  in  the  throng,  for  commerce  had 
brought  the  world  in  all  its  various  forms  to  the  home  of  the 
prayers  of  Winthrop  and  Higginson;  the  royal  governors 
maintained  a  fitting  state,  and  traveled  Americans,  then 
as  now,  brought  back  with  them  from  Europe  the  freshest 
ideas  of  modishness  and  style.  There  were  folk  of  quality 
there,  personages  of  importance  and  dignity,  forming  an 
inner  aristocratic  circle  who  conversed  of  London  and  the 
Court,  and  whose  august  society  it  was  the  dear  ambition  of 
the  lesser  lights  to  ape,  if  they  could  not  join  it.  Democratic 
manners  were  at  a  discount  in  these  little  hotbeds  of  ama- 
teur cockneyism ;  the  gloomy  severities  of  the  old-fashioned 
religion  were  put  aside;  there  was  an  increasing  gap  be- 
tween the  higher  and  the  lower  orders  of  the  population. 
This  appearance  was  no  doubt  superficial;  and  the  beau- 
monde  is  never  so  numerous  as  its  conspicuousness  leads 
one  to  imagine.  When  the  rumblings  of  the  Revolutionary 
earthquake  began  to  make  themselves  heard  in  earnest,  the 
gingerbread  aristocracy  came  tumbling  down  in  a  hurry, 
and  the  old,  invincible  spirit,  temporarily  screened  by  the 
waving  of  scented  handkerchiefs,  the  flutter  of  fans,  and 
the  swish  of  hoop  skirts,  made  itself  once  more  manifest 
and  dominant.  But  that  epoch  was  still  far  off;  for  the 
present,  court  was  paid  to  Hovenden  and  his  officers;  and 
the  British  coffee-house  in  King  Street  was  a  noble  sight. 


286  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

What  bottles  of  wine  those  warriors  drank,  what  snuff  they 
took,  what  long  pipes  they  smoked,  how  they  swore  and 
ruffled,  and  what  tales  they  told  of  Marlborough  and  the 
wars !  The  British  army  swore  frightfully  in  Flanders,  and 
in  King  Street,  too.  There,  also,  they  read  the  news  in  the 
newspapers  of  the  day,  and  discussed  matters  of  high  policy 
and  strategy,  while  the  civilians  listened  with  respectful 
admiration.  And  see  how  that  dapper  young  officer  seated 
in  the  window  arches  his  handsome  eyebrows  and  smirks  as 
two  pretty  Boston  girls  go  by!  Yes,  it  is  no  wonder  that 
the  British  fleet  needed  a  long  time  to  refit  in  Boston  har- 
bor, before  going  up  to  annihilate  those  French  jumping- 
jacks  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  "La,  Captain,  I 
hope  you  won't  get  hurt!"  says  pretty  Miss  Betty,  with  her 
white  wig  and  her  beauty  spots ;  and  that  heroic  young  gen- 
tleman lifts  her  hand  to  his  lips,  and  swears  deeply  that,  for 
a  glance  from  her  bright  eyes,  he  would  go  forth  and  cap- 
ture Quebec  single-handed. 

While  these  dalliances  were  in  progress,  the  French 
jumping-jacks  were  putting  things  in  order  to  receive  their 
expected  guests  in  a  becoming  manner.  They  held  a  great 
pow-wow  of  representatives  of  Indian  tribes  from  all  parts 
of  the  seat  of  the  projected  war,  and  bound  them  by  com- 
pacts to  their  assistance.  Everybody,  even  the  women, 
worked  on  the  fortifications,  or  on  anything  that  might 
aid  in  the  common  defense.  Before  the  end  of  August,  at 
which  time  the  outlookers  reported  signs  of  a  fleet  of  near  a 
hundred  sail,  flying  the  British  flag,  all  was  ready  for  them 
in  the  French  strongholds.  So  now  let  the  mighty  combat 
begin. 

But  it  was  not  to  come  this  time :  the  era  of  William  Pitt 
and  General  Wolfe  was  nearly  hah*  a  century  distant.  The 
latter  would  not  be  born  for  sixteen  years,  and  the  former 
was  a  pap-eating  babe  of  three.  Meanwhile  the  redoubtable 
Hovenden  was  snoring  in  bed,  while  his  fleet  was  struggling 
in  a  dense  fog  at  night,  being  driven  on  the  shoals  of  the 


FIFTY  YEARS  OF  FOOLS  AND  HEROES         287 

Egg  Islands  near  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  "For 
the  Lord's  sake,  come  on  deck!"  roars  Captain  Goddard, 
thrusting  his  head  into  the  cabin  for  the  second  time,  "or 
we  shall  aU  be  lost!"  Thus  adjured,  the  old  imbecile  hud- 
dles on  his  dressing  gown  and  slippers,  and  finds  himself, 
sure  enough,  close  on  a  lee  shore.  He  made  shift  to  get  his 
own  vessel  out  of  harm's  way,  but  eight  others  went  down, 
and  near  nine  hundred  men  were  drowned.  "Impossible  to 
go  on,"  was  the  vote  of  the  council  of  war  the  next  morn- 
ing; and  "It's  all  for  the  best,"  added  this  remarkable  ad- 
miral; "for  had  we  got  to  Quebec,  ten  or  twelve  thousand 
of  us  must  have  perished  of  cold  and  hunger;  Providence 
took  eight  hundred  to  save  the  rest!" 

So  back  they  went,  with  their  tails  between  their  legs, 
without  having  had  a  glimpse  of  the  citadel  which  they  were 
to  have  captured  without  an  effort;  and  of  course  the  army 
waiting  at  Albany  for  the  word  to  advance  got  news  of  a 
different  color,  and  Montreal  was  as  safe  as  Quebec.  In  the 
west,  the  Foxes,  having  planned  an  attack  on  Detroit,  did 
really  lay  siege  to  it ;  but  Du  Buisson,  who  defended  it,  sum- 
moned a  swarm  of  Indian  allies  to  his  aid,  and  the  Foxes 
found  that  the  boot  was  on  the  other  leg;  they  were  all 
either  slain  or  carried  into  slavery.  Down  in  the  Carolinas, 
a  party  of  Tuscaroras  attacked  a  settlement  of  Palatines 
near  Pamlico  Sound,  and  wiped  them  out ;  and  some  Hugue- 
nots at  Bath  fared  little  better.  Disputes  btweeen  the  gov- 
ernor and  the  burgesses  prevented  aid  from  Virginia;  but 
Barn  well  of  South  Carolina  succeeded  in  making  terms  with 
the  enemy.  A  desultory  and  exhausting  warfare  continued 
however,  complicated  with  an  outbreak  of  yellow  fever,  and 
it  was  not  until  1713  that  the  Tuscaroras  were  driven  finally 
out  of  the  country,  and  were  incorporated  with  the  Iroquois 
in  the  north.  The  war  in  Europe  had  by  that  time  come 
also  to  an  end,  and  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  brought  about  an 
ambiguous  peace  for  a  generation. 

George  I.  now  became  king  of  England;  because  he  was 


288  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  son  of  Sophia,  granddaughter  of  James  I. ,  and  professed 
the  Protestant  religion.  He  was  a  Hanoverian  German,  and 
did  not  understand  the  English  language;  he  was  stupid  and 
disreputable,  and  better  fitted  to  administer  a  German  bier- 
stube  than  a  great  kingdom.  But  the  Act  of  Settlement  of 
1701  had  stipulated  that  if  William  or  Anne  died  childless, 
the  Protestant  issue  of  Sophia  should  succeed.  That  such 
a  man  should  prove  an  acceptable  sovereign  both  to  Great 
Britain  and  her  American  colonies,  showed  that  the  individ- 
uality on  the  throne  had  become  secondary  to  the  principles 
which  he  stood  for ;  besides,  George  profited  by  the  easy, 
sagacious,  good-humored  leadership  of  that  unprincipled  but 
common-sensible  man-of- the- world,  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  who 
was  prime  minister  from  1715  to  1741,  with  an  interval  of 
only  a  couple  of  years.  Walpole's  aim  was  to  avoid  wars 
and  develop  commerce  and  manufactures;  and  while  he 
lived,  the  colonies  enjoyed  immunity  from  conflicts  with 
the  French  and  Spanish. 

They  were  not  to  forget  the  use  of  arms,  however ;  for 
the  Indians  were  inevitably  encroached  upon  by  the  expand- 
ing white  population,  and  resented  it  in  the  usual  way.  In 
1715  the  Yemasses  began  a  massacre  on  the  Carolina  bor- 
ders; they  were  driven  off  by  Charles  Craven,  after  the 
colonists  had  lost  four  hundred  men.  The  proprietors  had 
given  no  help  in  the  war,  and  after  it  was  over,  the  colony 
renounced  allegiance  to  them,  and  the  English  government 
supported  their  revolt,  regarding  it  in  the  light  of  an  act  of 
loyalty  to  George.  Francis  Nicholson,  a  governor  by  pro- 
fession, and  of  great  experience  in  that  calling,  was  appointed 
royal  governor,  and  made  peace  with  the -tribes;  and  in  1729 
the  crown  bought  out  the  claims  of  the  proprietors.  North 
Carolina,  without  a  revolt,  enjoyed  the  benefits  obtained  by 
their  southern  brethren.  The  Cherokees  became  a  buffer 
against  the  encroachments  of  the  French  from  the  west. 

In  the  north,  meanwhile,  the  Abenakis,  in  sympathy 
with  the  French,  claimed  the  region  between  the  Kennebec 


FIFTY  YEARS  OF  FOOLS  AND  HEROES         289 

and  the  St.  Croix,  and  applied  to  the  French  for  assistance. 
Sebastian  Rasles,  a  saintly  Jesuit  priest  and  Indian  mission- 
ary, had  made  his  abode  at  Norridgwock  on  the  Kennebec ; 
he  was  regarded  by  Massachusetts  as  an  instigator  of  the 
enemy.  They  seized  his  post,  he  escaping  for  the  time;  the 
Indians  burned  Brunswick;  but  in  1723  Westbrooke  with  a 
company  of  hardy  provincials,  who  knew  more  of  Indian 
warfare  than  the  Indians  themselves,  attacked  an  Indian 
fort  near  the  present  Bangor  and  destroyed  it;  the  next  year 
Norridgwock  was  surprised,  and  Rasles  slain.  He  met  his 
death  with  the  sublime  cheerfulness  and  courage  which  were 
the  badge  of  his  order.  French  influence  hi  northeastern 
Massachusetts  was  at  an  end,  and  ,lohn  Lovewell,  before 
he  lost  his  life  by  an  ambush  of  Saco  Indians  at  Battle  Brook, 
had  made  it  necessary  for  the  Indians  to  sue  for  peace.  Com- 
merce took  the  place  of  religion  as  a  subjugating  force,  and 
an  era  of  prosperity  began  for  the  northeastern  settlements. 

There  was  no  settled  boundary  between  northern  New 
York  and  the  French  regions.  Each  party  used  diplomatic 
devices  to  gain  advantage.  Both  built  trading  stations  on 
doubtful  territory,  which  developed  into  forts.  Burnet  of 
New  York  founded  Oswego  in  1727,  and  gained  a  strip  of 
land  from  the  Iroquois ;  France  built  a  fort  on  Lake  Cham- 
plain  in  1.731.  Six  years  before  that,  they  had  established, 
by  the  agency  of  the  sagacious  trader  Joncaire,  a  not  less 
important  fort  at  Niagara.  Upon  the  whole,  the  French 
gained  the  better  of  their  rivals  in  these  negotiations. 

Louisiana,  as  the  French  possessions,  or  claims,  south  of 
Canada  were  called,  was  meanwhile  bidding  fair  to  cover 
most  of  the  continent  west  of  the  Alleghanies  and  north  of 
the  indeterminate  Spanish  region  which  overspread  the  pres- 
ent Texas,  New  Mexico,  Arizona,  California  and  Mexico.  No 
boundary  lines  could  be  run  in  those  enormous  western  ex- 
panses ;  and  it  made  little  practical  difference  whether  a  given 
claim  lay  a  thousand  miles  this  way  or  that.  But  on  the 
east  it  was  another  matter.  The  French  pursued  their  set- 
U.S.— 13  VOL.  L 


2go  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

tied  policy  of  conciliating  the  Indians  wherever  they  hoped 
to  establish  themselves ;  but  though  this  was  well,  it  was 
not  enough.  Narrow  though  the  English  strip  of  territory 
was,  the  inhabitants  greatly  outnumbered  the  French,  and 
were  correspondingly  more  wealthy.  Spotswood  of  Virginia, 
in  1710,  was  for  pushing  out  beyond  the  mountains,  and  Lo- 
gan of  Pennsylvania  also  called  Walpole's  attention  to  the 
troubles  ahead ;  but  the  prime  minister  would  take  no  action. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  white  population  of  Louisiana  was 
ridiculously  small,  and  their  trade  nothing  worth  mention- 
ing ;  but  when  Anthony  Crozar  resigned  the  charter  he  had 
received  for  the  district,  it  was  taken  up  by  the  famous  John 
Law,  the  English  goldsmith's  son,  who  had  become  chief 
financial  adviser  of  the  Regent  of  France ;  and  immediately 
the  face  of  things  underwent  a  change  like  the  magic  trans- 
formations of  a  pantomime. 

The  Regent  inherited  from  Louis  XI Y.  a  debt  which 
there  was  not  money  enough  in  all  France  to  pay.  Law 
had  a  plan  to  pay  it  by  the  issue  of  paper.  Louisiana  offered 
itself  as  just  the  thing  for  purposes  of  investment,  and  a  pre- 
text for  the  issue  of  unlimited  "shares."  Not  to  speak  of 
the  gold  and  silver,  there  was  unlimited  wealth  in  the  un- 
known country,  and  Law  assumed  that  it  could  be  produced 
at  once.  Companies  were  formed,  and  thousands  of  settlers 
rushed  to  the  promised  paradise.  But  we  have  to  do  with 
the  Mississippi  Bubble  only  as  it  affected  America*.  The 
Bubble  burst,  but  the  settlers  remained,  and  were  able  to 
prosper,  in  moderation,  like  other  settlers  in  a  fertile  coun- 
try. A  great  area  of  land  was  occupied.  Local  tribes  of 
Indians  joined  in  a  massacre  of  the  colonists  in  1729.  They 
in  turn  were  nearly  exterminated  by  the  French  forces  dur- 
ing the  next  two  years,  but  the  war  aroused  a  new  hostility 
among  the  red  tribes  against  the  French,  which  redounded 
to  the  English  advantage.  In  1740,  Bienville  was  more 
than  willing  to  make  a  peace,  which  left  to  France  no  more 
than  nominal  control  of  the  tract  of  country  drained  by  the 


FIFTY  YEARS  OF  FOOLS  AND  HEROES         29! 

southern  twelve  hundred  miles  of  the  Mississippi.  The  pop- 
ulation, after  all  the  expense  and  efforts  of  half  a  century, 
numbered  about  five  thousand  white  persons,  with  upward 
of  two  thousand  slaves.  The  horse  is  his  who  rides  it.  The 
French  had  not  proved  themselves  as  good  horsemen  as  the 
English.  The  English  colonies  had  at  the  same  time  a  pop- 
ulation of  about  half  a  million;  their  import  and  export 
trade  aggregated  nearly  four  million  dollars;  they  had  a 
wide  and  profitable  trade;  and  the  only  thing  they  could 
complain  of  was  the  worthless  or  infamous  character  of  the 
majority  of  the  officials  which  the  shameless  corruption  of 
the  Walpole  administration  sent  out  to  govern — in  other 
words,  to  prey  upon — them.  But  if  this  was  the  only  sub- 
ject of  complaint,  it  could  not  be  termed  a  small  subject. 
It  meant  the  enforcement  of  the  Navigation  Acts  in  their 
worst  form,  and  the  restriction  of  all  manner  of  manufac- 
tures. Manufactures  would  tend  to  make  the  colonies  set 
up  for  themselves,  and  therefore  they  must  be  forbidden : — 
such  was  the  undisguised  argument.  It  was  a  case  of  the 
goose  laying  golden  eggs.  America  had  in  fact  become  so 
enormously  valuable  that  England  wanted  it  to  become 
profit  and  nothing  else — and  all  the  profit  to  be  England's. 
They  still  failed  to  realize  that  it  was  inhabited  by  human 
beings,  and  that  those  human  beings  were  of  English  blood. 
And  because  the  northern  colonies,  though  the  more  indus- 
trious, produced  things  which  might  interfere  with  British 
goods,  therefore  they  were  held  down  more  than  the  south- 
ern colonies,  which  grew  only  tobacco,  sugar,  rice  and  in- 
digo, which  could  in  no  degree  interfere  with  the  sacred 
shopkeepers  and  mill-owners  of  England.  An  insanity  of 
blindness  and  perversity  seized  upon  the  English  govern- 
ment, and  upon  most  of  the  people ;  they  actually  were  inca- 
pable of  seeing  justice,  or  even  their  own  best  interests.  It 
seems  strange  to  us  now ;  but  it  was  a  mania,  like  that  of 
witchcraft,  though  it  lasted  thrice  as  many  years  aa  that  did 
months. 


HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 


The  will  of  England  in  respect  of  the  colonies  became  as 
despotic  as  under  the  Stuarts;  but  though  it  delayed  prog- 
ress, it  could  not  break  down  the  resistance  of  the  assem- 
blies; and  Walpole  would  consent  to  no  suggestion  looking 
toward  enforcing  it  by  arms.  Stamp  duties  were  spoken  of, 
but  not  enacted.  The  governors  raged  and  complained,  but 
the  assemblies  held  the  purse-strings.  Would-be  tyrants  like* 
Shute  of  Boston  might  denounce  woe,  and  Crosby  of  New 
York  bellow  treason,  but  they  were  fain  to  succumb.  Paper 
money  wrought  huge  mischief,  but  nothing  could  prevent 
the  growing  power  and  wealth  of  the  colonies,  fed,  also,  by 
the  troubles  in  Europe.  In  1727  the  Irish,  always  friends  of 
liberty,  began  to  arrive  in  large  numbers.  But  what  was 
of  better  augury  than  all  else  was  the  birth  of  two  men,  one 
in  Virginia,  the  other  in  Boston.  The  latter  was  named 
Benjamin  Franklin  :  the  former,  George  Washington. 


CHAPTER     ELEVENTH 

QUEM  JUPITER    VULT  PERDERE 

HERE  are  times  when,  upon  nations  as  upon 
individuals,  there  comes  a  wave  of  evil  ten- 
dency, which  seems  to  them  not  evil,  but 
good.  Under  its  influence  they  do  and  think 
things  which  afterward  amaze  them  in  the 
retrospect.  But  such  ill  seasons  are  always 
balanced  by  the  presence  and  opposition  of  those  who  desire 
good,  whether  from  selfish  or  altruistic  motives.  And  since 
good  alone  has  a  root,  connecting  it  with  the  eternal  springs 
of  life,  therefore  in  the  end  it  prevails,  and  the  movement 
of  the  race  is  on  the  whole,  and  in  the  lapse  of  time,  toward 
better  conditions. 


QUEM   JUPITER  VULT   PERDERE  293 

England,  during  the  Eighteenth  Century,  came  under 
the  influence  of  a  selfish  spirit  which  could  not  but  lead  her 
toward  disaster,  though  at  the  time  it  seemed  as  if  it  pro- 
moted only  prosperity  and  power.  She  thought  she  could 
strengthen  her  own  life  by  restricting  the  natural  enterprise 
and  development  of  her  colonies :  that  she  could  subsist  by 
sucking  human  blood.  She  believed  that  by  compelling  the 
produce  of  America  to  flow  toward  herself  alone,  and  by 
making  America  the  sole  recipient  of  her  own  manufactures, 
she  must  be  immeasurably  and  continually  benefited;  not 
perceiving  that  the  colonies  could  never  reach  the  full  limit 
of  their  productiveness  unless  freedom  were  conceded  to  all 
the  impulses  of  their  energy,  or  that  the  greater  the  number 
of  those  nations  who  were  allowed  freely  to  supply  colonial 
wants,  the  greater  those  wants  would  become.  Moreover, 
selfishness  is  never  consistent,  because  it  does  not  respect  the 
selfishness  of  others;  and  England,  at  the  same  time  that 
she  was  maintaining  her  own  trade  monopolies,  was  illicitly 
undermining  the  similar  monopolies  of  other  nations.  She 
promoted  smuggling  in  the  Spanish  "West  Indies,  and  made 
might  right  in  all  her  dealings  with  foreign  peoples.  The 
assiento — the  treaty  giving  her  exclusive  right  to  supply  the 
West  Indian  islands  with  African  slaves — was  actively  car- 
ried out,  and  the  slave-trade  reached  enormous  proportions; 
it  is  estimated  that  from  three  to  nine  millions  of  Africans 
were  imported  into  the  American  and  Spanish  colonies  dur- 
ing the  first  half  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  yielding  a 
revenue  for  their  importation  alone  of  at  least  four  hun- 
dred million  dollars.  But  the  profit  did  not  end  there;  for 
their  labor  on  the  plantations  in  the  southern  colonies  (where 
alone  they  could  be  used  in  appreciable  numbers)  multiplied 
the  production  and  diminished  the  cost  of  the  articles  of 
commerce  which  those  colonies  raised.  There  were  individ- 
uals, almost  from  the  beginning,  who  objected  to  slavery  on 
grounds  of  abstract  morality;  and  others  who  held  that  a 
converted  African  should  cease  to  be  a  slave.  But  these 


294  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

opinions  did  not  impress  the  bulk  of  the  people ;  and  laws 
were  passed  classing  negroes  with  merchandise.  "The 
trade  is  very  beneficial  to  the  country' '  was  the  stereotyped 
reply  to  ah1  humanitarian  arguments.  The  cruelties  of 
transportation  in  small  vessels  were  regarded  as  an  un- 
avoidable, if  disagreeable,  necessity ;  it  was  pointed  out  that 
the  masters  of  slaves  would  be  prompted  by  self-interest  to 
treat  them  well  after  they  were  landed;  and  it  was  obvious 
that  negroes,  after  a  generation  of  captivity,  were  less  re- 
mote from  civilization  than  when  fresh  from  Africa. 

The  good  to  balance  this  ill  was  supplied  by  the  Ameri- 
can colonies.  Their  resistance  to  English  selfishness  may 
have  been  in  part  animated  by  selfishness  of  their  own ;  but 
it  none  the  less  had  justice  and  right  behind  it.  In  any 
argument  on  fundamental  principles,  the  colonists  always 
had  the  better  of  it.  Their  rights  as  free  men  and  as 
chartered  communities  were  indefeasible,  were  always  as- 
serted, and  never  given  up.  They  did  not  hesitate  to  dis- 
regard the  more  unjust  of  England's  exactions  and  restric- 
tions; it  was  only  by  such  defiance  that  they  maintained 
their  life.  And  against  the  importation  of  slaves  there  was 
a  general  feeling,  even  among  the  Southern  planters;  be- 
cause, not  to  speak  of  other  considerations,  they  multiplied 
there  to  an  alarming  extent,  and  the  fact  that  they  cheap- 
ened production  and  lowered  prices  was  manifestly  as  unwel- 
come to  the  planters  as  it  was  favorable  to  English  traders. 

But  in  order  to  be  effective,  the  protest  of  a  people — their 
enlightenment,  their  virtue  and  patriotism,  their  courage  and 
philosophy,  their  firmness  and  self-reliance,  their  hatred  of 
shams,  dishonesty  and  tyranny — must  be  embodied  and 
summed  up  in  certain  individuals  among  them,  who  may 
thus  be  recognized  by  the  community  as  their  representa- 
tives in  the  fuUest  sense,  and  therefore  as  their  natural 
champions  and  leaders.  America  has  never  lacked  such 
men,  adapted  to  her  need;  and  at  this  period  they  were 
coming  to  maturity  as  Franklin  and  Washington.  They 


QUEM   JUPITER  VULT   PERDERE  295 

will  be  with  us  during  the  critical  hours  of  our  formative 
history,  and  we  shall  have  opportunity  to  measure  their 
characters.  Meanwhile  there  is  another  good  man  deserv- 
ing of  passing  attention ;  not  born  on  our  soil,  but  meriting 
to  be  called,  in  the  best  sense,  an  American.  In  the  midst 
of  a  corrupt  and  self -seeking  age,  he  was  unselfish  and  pure ; 
and  while  many  uttered  pretty  sentiments  of  philanthropy, 
and  devised  fanciful  Utopias  for  the  transfiguration  of  the 
human  race,  he  went  to  work  with  his  hands  and  purse  as 
well  as  with  his  heart  and  head,  and  created  a  home  and 
happiness  for  unhappy  and  unfortunate  people  in  one  of  the 
loveliest  and  most  fertile  spots  in  the  western  world.  If  he 
was  not  as  wise  as  Perm,  he  was  as  kind;  and  if  his  colony 
did  not  succeed  precisely  as  he  had  planned  it  should,  at  any 
rate  it  became  a  happy  and  prosperous  settlement,  which 
would  not  have  existed  but  for  him.  He  had  not  fully 
fathomed  the  truth  that  in  order  to  bestow  upon  man  the 
best  chance  for  earthly  felicity,  we  must,  after  having  pro- 
vided him  with  the  environment  and  the  means  for  it,  let 
him  alone  to  work  it  out  in  his  own  way.  But  he  had  such 
magnanimity  that  when  he  found  that  his  carefully-arranged 
and  detailed  schemes  were  inefficient,  he  showed  no  resent- 
ment, and  did  not  try  to  enforce  what  had  seemed  to  him 
expedient,  against  the  wishes  of  his  beneficiaries;  but  retired 
amiably  and  with  dignity,  and  thus  merited  the  purest  grati- 
tude that  men  may  properly  accord  to  a  man. 

James  Edward  Oglethorpe  was  already  five  years  old 
when  the  Eighteenth  Century  began.  He  was  a  Londoner 
by  birth,  and  had  a  fortune  which  he  did  not  misuse.  HM 
was  a  valiant  soldier  against  the  Turks ;  he  was  present  with 
Prince  Eugene  at  the  capitulation  of  Belgrade ;  and  he  sat 
for  more  than  thirty  years  in  Parliament.  He  died  at  the 
age  of  ninety;  though  there  is  a  portrait  of  him  extant  said 
to  have  been  taken  when  he  was  one  hundred  and  two.  If 
long  life  be  the  reward  of  virtue,  he  deserved  to  survive  at 
least  a  century. 


296  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

The  speculative  fever  in  England  had  brought  about  much 
poverty;  and  debtors  were  lodged  in  jail  in  order,  one  might 
suppose,  to  prevent  them  from  taking  any  measures  to  liqui- 
date their  debts.  Besides  these  unhappy  persons,  there  were 
many  Protestants  on  the  Continent  who  were  persecuted  for 
their  faith's  sake.  England  compassionated  these  persons, 
having  learned  by  experience  what  persecution  is ;  and  did 
not  offer  any  objection  to  a  scheme  for  improving  the  lot  of 
debtors  in  her  own  land,  if  any  feasible  one  could  be  devised. 

General  Oglethorpe  had  devised  one.  He  was  then,  ac- 
cording to  our  reckoning,  a  mature  man  of  about  seven-and- 
thirty;  he  had  visited  the  prisons,  and  convinced  himself 
that  there  was  neither  political  economy  nor  humanity  in  this 
method  of  preserving  the  impecunious  class.  Why  not  take 
them  to  America?  Why  not  found  a  new  colony  there  where 
men  might  dwell  in  peace  and  comfort,  with  the  aim  not  of 
amassing  wealth,  but  of  living  sober  and  useful  lives?  On 
the  southern  side  of  South  Carolina  there  was  a  region  fitted 
for  such  an  enterprise,  which,  owing  to  its  proximity  to  the 
Spanish  colony  at  St.  Augustine,  had  been  vexed  by  border 
quarrels ;  but  Oglethorpe,  with  his  military  experience,  would 
be  able  to  keep  the  Spaniards  in  their  place  with  one  hand, 
while  he  was  planting  gardens  for  his  proteges  with  the 
other.  Thus  his  colony  would  be  useful  on  grounds  of  high 
policy,  as  well  as  for  its  own  ends.  And  in  order  addition- 
ally to  conciliate  the  good  will  of  the  home  government,  con- 
trolled as  it  was  by  mercantile  interests  chiefly,  the  silk- worm 
should  be  cultivated  there,  and  England  thus  saved  the  duties 
on  the  Italian  fabrics.  Should  there  be  slaves  in  the  new 
Eden? — On  all  accounts,  No :  first  because  slavery  was  in- 
trinsically wrong,  and  secondly  because  it  would  lead  to  idle- 
ness, if  not  to  wealth,  among  the  colonists.  For  the  same 
reason,  land  could  only  pass  to  the  eldest  son,  or  failing  male 
issue,  back  to  the  state;  if  permission  were  given  to  divide 
it,  or  to  sell  it,  there  would  soon  be  great  landed  properties 
and  an  aristocracy.  Nor  should  the  importation  of  rum  be 


QUEM  JUPITER  VULT  PERDERE  297 

permitted,  for  if  men  have  rum,  they  are  prone  to  drink  it, 
and  drunkenness  was  incompatible  with  the  kind  of  existence 
which  the  good  General  wished  his  colonists  to  lead.  In  a 
word,  by  removing  temptations  to  vice  and  avarice,  he 
thought  he  could  make  his  people  forget  that  such  evils 
had  ever  belonged  to  human  nature.  But  experiments 
founded  upon  the  innate  impeccability  of  man  have  fur- 
nished many  comedies  and  not  a  few  tragedies  since  the 
world  began. 

The  Oglethorpe  idea,  however,  appealed  to  the  public, 
and  became  a  sort  of  fashionable  fad.  It  was  commended, 
and  after  Parliament  had  voted  ten  thousand  pounds  toward 
it,  it  was  everywhere  accepted  as  the  correct  thing.  The 
charter  was  given  in  June  1732,  and  a  suitable  design  was 
not  wanting  for  the  corporation  seal — silkworms,  with  the 
motto,  Non  Sibi,  sed  Aliis.  This  might  refer  either  to  the 
colonists  or  to  the  patrons,  since  the  latter  were  to  receive 
no  emoluments  for  their  services,  and  the  former  were  to 
work  for  the  sake,  in  part  at  least,  of  vindicating  the  nobil- 
ity of  labor.  It  is  true  that  the  silkworm  is  an  involuntary 
and  unconscious  altruist;  but  we  must  allow  some  latitude 
in  symbols ;  and  besides,  all  executive  and  legislative  power 
was  given  to  the  trustees,  or  such  council  as  they  might 
choose  to  appoint. 

In  November  the  general  conducted  his  hundred  or  more 
human  derelicts  to  Port  Royal,  and,  going  up  the  stream, 
chose  the  site  for  his  city  of  Savannah,  and  laid  it  out  in 
liberal  parallelograms.  While  it  was  building  he  tented  be- 
neath a  quartette  of  primeval  pines,  and  exchanged  friendly 
greetings  and  promises  with  the  various  Indian  tribes  who 
sent  deputies  to  him.  A  year  from  that  time,  the  German 
Protestant  refugees  began  to  arrive,  and  started  a  town  of 
their  own  further  inland.  A  party  of  Moravians  followed; 
and  the  two  Wesleys  aided  to  introduce  an  exalted  religious 
sentiment  which  might  have  recalled  the  days  of  the  Pil- 
grims. For  the  present,  all  went  harmoniously ;  the  debtors 


298  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

were  thankful  to  be  out  of  prison ;  the  religious  folk  were 
happy  so  long  as  they  might  wreak  themselves  on  their 
religion;  and  the  silk-culture  paid  a  revenue  so  long  as 
England  paid  bounties  on  it.  But  the  time  must  come 
when  the  colonists  would  demand  to  do  what  they  liked 
with  their  own  land,  and  other  things;  when  they  would 
import  rum  by  stealth  and  hardly  blush  to  be  found  out; 
when  some  of  the  less  democratically-minded  decided  that 
there  were  advantages  in  slaves  after  all;  and  when  some 
of  the  more  independent  declared  they  could  not  endure 
oppression,  and  migrated  to  other  colonies.  After  strug- 
gling a  score  of  years  against  the  inevitable,  the  trustees 
surrendered  their  trusteeship,  and  the  colony  came  under 
the  management  of  the  Second  George.  Oglethorpe  had 
long  ere  this  retired  to  England,  after  having  kept  his 
promise  of  reducing  the  Spaniards  to  order;  and  at  his 
home  at  Cranham  Hall  in  Essex  he  continued  to  be  the 
friend  of  man  until  after  the  close  of  the  American  Revo- 
lution. 

The  war  with  Spain,  of  which  Oglethorpe's  unsuccessful 
attack  upon  St.  Augustine  and  triumphant  defense  of  his 
own  place  was  but  a  very  minor  feature,  raged  for  a  while 
in  the  West  Indies  with  no  very  marked  advantage  to  either 
contestant,  and  then  drew  the  other  nations  of  Europe  into 
the  fray.  Nothing  creditable  was  being  fought  for  on  either 
side.  England,  to  be  sure,  had  declared  war  with  the  object 
of  expunging  Spain  from  America ;  but  it  had  been  only  in 
order  that  she  herself  might  replace  Spain  there  as  a  monop- 
olist. France  came  in  to  prevent  England  from  enjoying 
this  monopoly.  The  death  of  the  Austrian  king  and  a  con- 
sequent dispute  as  to  the  succession  added  that  power  to 
the  melee.  Russia  received  an  invitation  to  join,  and  this 
finally  led  to  the  Peace  of  Aix  La  Chapelle  in  1748,  which 
replaced  all  things  in  dispute  just  where  they  were  before 
innumerable  lives  and  enormous  treasure  had  been  ex- 
pended. But  the  Eighteenth  was  a  fighting  Century,  for 


QUEM  JUPITER  VULT  PERDERE  299 

it  was  the  transition  period  from  the  old  to  the  new  order 
of  civilized  life. 

The  part  borne  by  the  American  colonies  in  this  struggle 
was  quite  subordinate  and  sympathetic ;  but  it  was  not  the 
less  interesting  to  the  Americans.  In  1744  the  Six  Nations 
(as  the  Five  had  been  called  since  the  accession  of  the  Tus- 
caroras)  made  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  the  English  whereby 
the  Ohio  valley  was  secured  to  the  latter  as  against  the 
French — so  far,  that  is,  as  the  Indians  could  secure  it.  But 
the  Pennsylvanians  understood  that  more  than  Indian  trea- 
ties would  be  needed  against  France,  and  as  their  country 
was  likely  to  be  among  the  first  involved,  they  determined 
to  raise  money  and  men  for  the  campaign.  There  were,  of 
course,  men  in  Pennsylvania  who  were  not  of  the  Quaker 
way  of  thinking;  but  even  the  Quakers  forbore  to  oppose 
the  measure,  and  many  of  them  gave  it  explicit  approval. 
The  incident  gains  its  chief  interest  however  from  the  fact 
that  the  man  most  active  and  efficient  in  getting  both  the 
funds  and  the  soldiers  was  Benjamin  Franklin,  the  Boston 
boy,  in  whose  veins  flowed  the  blood  of  both  Quaker  and 
Calvinist,  but  who  was  himself  of  far  too  original  a  charac- 
ter to  be  either.  He  was  at  this  epoch  just  past  forty,  and 
had  been  a  resident  of  Philadelphia  for  some  twenty  years, 
and  a  famous  printer,  writer,  and  man  of  mark.  He  hit 
upon  the  scheme — which,  like  so  many  of  his,  was  more 
practical  than  orthodox — of  persuading  dollars  out  of  men's 
Dockets  by  means  of  a  lottery.  He  knew  that,  whatever  a 
fastidious  morality  might  protest,  lotteries  are  friendly  to 
human  nature ;  and  if  there  be  any  part  of  human  nature 
with  which  Franklin  was  unacquainted,  it  has  not  yet  been 
announced.  Having  got  the  money,  his  next  care  was  for 
the  men ;  and  his  plans  resulted  in  assembling  an  organized 
force  of  ten  or  twelve  thousand  militiamen.  But  the  energy 
and  ingenuity  of  this  incomparable  Franklin  of  ours  could 
be  equaled  only  by  his  modesty;  he  would  not  accept  a 
colonelcy,  but  shouldered  his  musket  along  with  the  rank 


300  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

and  file;  and  doubtless  the  company  to  which  he  belonged 
forgot  the  labors  of  war  in  their  enjoyment  of  his  wit, 
humor,  anecdotes,  parables,  and  resources  of  all  kinds. 

After  so  much  waste  and  folly  as  had  marked  the  con- 
duct of  the  war  in  Europe,  it  is  good  to  hear  the  tale  of  the 
capture  of  Louisburg.  It  was  an  adventure  which  gave  the 
colonists  merited  confidence  in  themselves,  and  the  character 
of  the  little  army,  and  the  management  of  the  campaign, 
were  an  excellent  and  suggestive  dress  rehearsal  of  the  great 
drama  of  thirty  years  later.  The  army  was  a  combination 
of  Yankees  with  arms  in  their  hands  to  effect  an  object  emi- 
nently conducive  to  the  common  welfare.  For  Louisburg 
was  the  key  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  it  commanded  the  fisher- 
ies, and  it  threatened  Acadia,  or  rather  Nova  Scotia,  which 
was  inhabited  chiefly  by  Bretons,  liable  to  afford  succor  to 
their  belligerent  brethren.  The  fort  had  been  built,  after 
the  close  of  the  former  war,  by  those  who  had  preferred  not 
to  live  under  the  government  of  the  House  of  Hanover,  on 
the  eastern  extremity  of  the  island  called  Cape  Breton,  itself. 
lying  northeast  of  the  Nova  Scotian  promontory.  The  site 
was  good  for  defense,  and  the  fortifications,  scientifically  de- 
signed, were  held  to  be  impregnable.  Had  Louisburg  rested 
content  with  being  strong,  it  might  have  been  allowed  to 
remain  at  peace;  but  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and 
before  the  frontier  people  in  Nova  Scotia  had  heard  of  it,  a 
French  party  swooped  down  from  Louisburg  on  the  settle- 
ment at  Canso  (the  gut  between  Cape  Breton  and  Nova 
Scotia),  destroyed  all  that  was  destructible,  and  carried 
eighty  men  as  prisoners  of  war  to  their  stronghold.  After 
keeping  them  there  during  the  summer,  these  men  were 
paroled  and  went  to  Boston.  This  was  a  mistake  on  the 
Louisburgers'  part ;  for  the  men  had  made  themselves  well 
acquainted  with  the  fortifications  and  the  topography  of  the 
neighborhood,  and  placed  this  useful  information  at  the  dis- 
posal of  William  Shirley,  a  lawyer  of  ability,  who  was  after- 
ward governor  of  the  colony  and  a  warrior  of  some  note.  It 


QUEM  JUPITER  VULT  PERDERE  301 

was  Shirley's  opinion  that  Louisburg  must  be  taken,  and  the 
idea  immediately  became  popular.  It  was  the  main  topic  of 
discussion  in  Boston,  and  all  over  New  England,  during  the 
autumn  and  winter;  Massachusetts  decided  that  it  could  be 
done,  and  that  she  could  do  it,  though  the  help  of  other  col- 
onies would  be  gladly  accepted.  Yet  the  feeling  was  not 
unanimous,  if  the  vote  of  the  legislature  be  a  criterion ;  the 
bill  passed  there  by  a  majority  of  one.  Be  that  as  it  may, 
once  resolved  upon,  the  enterprise  was  pushed  with  ardor, 
not  unmingled  with  prayer — the  old  Puritan  leaven  reap- 
pearing as  soon  as  deeds  of  real  moment  were  in  the  wind. 
In  every  village  and  hamlet  there  was  excitement  and  prep- 
aration— the  warm  courage  of  men  glad  to  have  a  chance  at 
the  hated  fortress,  and  the  pale  bravery  of  women  keeping 
down  the  heavy  throbbing  of  their  hearts  so  that  their  sons 
and  husbands  might  feel  no  weakness  for  their  sakes.  The 
fishermen  of  Marblehead,  used  to  face  the  storms  and  fogs 
of  the  Newfoundland  Banks;  the  farmers  and  mechanics, 
who  could  hit  a  Bay  shilling  (if  one  could  be  found  in  that 
era  of  paper  money)  at  fifty  paces;  and  the  hunters,  who 
knew  the  craft  of  the  Indians  and  were  inured  to  every 
fatigue  and  hardship — finer  material  for  an  army  was  never 
got  together  before:  independent,  bold,  cunning,  handy,  in. 
ventive,  full  of  resource;  but  utterly  ignorant  of  drill,  and 
indifferent  to  it.  Their  officers  were  chosen  by  themselves, 
of  the  same  rank  and  character  as  they;  their  only  uniforms 
were  their  flintlocks  and  hangers.  They  marched  and 
camped  as  nature  prompted,  but  they  had  common-sense 
developed  to  the  utmost  by  the  exigencies  of  their  daily 
lives,  and  they  created,  simply  by  being  together,  a  disci- 
pline and  tactics  of  their  own;  they  even  learned  enough  of 
the  arts  of  fortification  and  intrenchment,  during  the  siege, 
to  serve  all  their  requirements.  They  had  the  American 
instinct  to  break  loose  from  tradition  and  solve  problems 
from  an  original  point  of  view ;  they  laughed  at  the  jargon 
and  technicalities  of  conventional  war,  but  they  had  their 


302  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

own  passwords,  and  they  understood  one  another  in  and 
out.  The  carpenters  and  other  mechanics  among  them 
carried  their  skill  along,  and  were  ever  ready  to  put  it 
in  practice  for  the  general  behoof.  Most  of  them  left  wives 
and  children  at  home;  but  "Suffer  no  anxious  thoughts  to 
rest  in  your  mind  about  me, ' '  writes  his  wife  to  Seth  Pome- 
roy,  who  had  sent  word  to  her  that  he  was  "willing  to  stay 
till  God's  time  comes  to  deliver  the  city  into  our  hands" : — 
"I  leave  you  in  the  hands  of  God,"  added  she;  and  sub- 
joined, by  way  of  village  gossip,  that  "the  whole  town  is 
much  engaged  with  concern  for  the  expedition,  how  Provi- 
dence will  order  the  affair,  for  which  religious  meetings 
every  week  are  maintained."  We  can  imagine  those  meet- 
ings, held  in  the  village  meeting-house,  with  an  infirm  old 
veteran  of  King  William's  War  to  lead  in  prayer,  and  the 
benches  occupied  by  the  women,  devout  but  spirited,  with 
the  little  children  by  their  sides.  What  hearty  prayers: 
what  sighs  irrepressibly  heaving  those  brave,  tender  bos- 
oms; what  secret  tears,  denied  by  smiles  when  the  face 
was  lifted  from  the  clasping  hands!  Righteous  prayers, 
which  were  fulfilled. 

Over  three  thousand  men  went  from  Massachusetts 
alone;  New  Hampshire  added  five  hundred,  and  more 
than  that  number  arrived  from  Connecticut,  after  the  rest 
had  gone  into  camp  at  Canso.  The  three  hundred  from 
little  Rhode  Island  came  too  late.  Other  colonies  sent 
rations  and  money.  But  the  four  thousand  were  enough, 
with  Pepperel  of  Kittery  for  commander,  and  a  good  cause. 
They  set  out  alone  while  the  Cape  Breton  ice  still  filled  the 
harbors;  for  Commodore  Warren  of  the  English  fleet  at 
Antigua  would  not  go  except  by  order  from  England — 
which,  however,  came  soon  afterward,  so  that  he  and  his 
ships  joined  them  after  all  before  hostilities  began.  The 
expedition  first  set  eyes  on  their  objective  point  on  the  day 
before  May  day,  1745. 

The  fortress  bristled  with  guns  of  all  sizes,  and  the  walls 


QUEM  JUPITER  VULT  PERDERE  303 

were  of  enormous  thickness,  so  that  no  cannon  belonging  to 
the  besiegers  could  hope  to  make  a  breach  in  them.  But  the 
hearts  of  the  garrison  were  less  stout  than  their  defenses; 
and  when  four  hundred  cheering  volunteers  approached  a 
battery  on  shore,  the  Frenchmen  spiked  their  guns  and  ran 
away. 

The  siege  lasted  six  weeks,  with  unusually  fine  weather. 
In  the  intervals  of  attacks  upon  the  island  battery,  which 
resisted  them,  the  men  hunted,  fished,  played  rough  outdoor 
games,  and  kept  up  their  spirits ;  and  they  pounded  Louis- 
burg  gates  with  their  guns;  but  no  advantage  was  gamed; 
and  a  night-attack,  in  the  Indian  style,  was  discovered  pre- 
maturely, and  nearly  two  hundred  men  were  killed  or  cap- 
tured. Finally,  there  seemed  to  be  nothing  for  it  but  to 
escalade  the  walls,  "Warren — who  had  done  nothing  thus  far 
except  prevent  relief  from  approaching  by  sea — bombarding 
the  city  meanwhile.  It  hardly  seems  possible  the  attempt 
could  have  succeeded;  at  best,  the  losses  would  have  been 
enormous.  But  at  the  critical  moment,  depressed,  perhaps, 
by  having  witnessed  the  taking  of  an  incautious  French 
frigate  which  had  tried  to  run  the  blockade,  what  should 
the  French  commander  do  but  hang  out  a  white  flag !  Yes, 
the  place  had  capitulated!  The  gates  that  could  not  be 
hammered  in  with  cannon-balls  were  thrown  open,  and  in 
crowded  the  Yankee  army,  laughing,  staring,  and  thanking 
the  Lord  of  Hosts  for  His  mercies.  Truly,  it  was  like  David 
overcoming  Goliath,  without  his  sling.  It  was  a  great  day 
for  New  England ;  and  on  the  same  day  thirty  years  later 
the  British  redcoats  fell  beneath  the  volleys  on  Bunker  Hill. 

The  French  tried  to  recapture  the  place  next  year,  but 
storms,  pestilence  and  other  disasters  prevented;  and  the 
only  other  notable  incident  of  the  war  was  the  affair  of 
Commander  Knowles  at  Boston  in  1747.  He  was  anchored 
off  Nantasket  with  a  squadron,  when  some  of  his  tare 
deserted,  as  was  not  surprising,  considering  the  sort  of 
commander  he  was,  and  the  charms  of  the  famous  town. 


304  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES 

Knowles,  ignorant  of  the  spirit  of  a  Boston  mob,  impressed 
a  number  of  wharfmen  and  seamen  from  vessels  in  the  har- 
bor; he  had  done  the  same  thing  before  in  England,  and  why 
not  here?  But  the  mob  was  on  fire  at  once,  and  after  the 
timid  governor  had  declined  to  seize  such  of  the  British  naval 
officers  as  were  in  the  town,  the  crowd,  terrible  in  its  anger, 
came  thundering  down  King  Street  and  played  the  sheriff 
for  itself.  The  hair  of  His  Majesty's  haughty  commanders 
and  lieutenants  must  have  crisped  under  their  wigs  when 
they  looked  out  of  the  windows  of  the  coffee-house  and  saw 
them.  In  walks  the  citizens'  deputation,  with  scant  cere- 
mony: protests  are  unavailing:  off  to  jail  His  Majesty's 
officers  must  straightway  march,  leaving  their  bottles  of 
wine  half  emptied,  and  their  chairs  upset  on  the  sawdusted 
floor;  and  in  jail  must  they  abide,  until  those  impressed 
Bostonians  have  been  liberated.  It  was  a  wholesome  les- 
son; and  among  the  children  who  ran  and  shouted  beside 
the  procession  to  the  prison  were  those  who,  when  they  were 
men  grown,  threw  the  tea  into  Boston  Harbor. 

In  1748  the  Peace  was  made,  and  the  Duke  of  Newcastle, 
a  flighty,  trivial  and  faithless  creature,  gave  place  to  the 
strict,  honest,  and  narrow  Duke  of  Bedford  as  Secretary  of 
the  Colonies.  The  colonies  had  been  under  the  charge  of 
the  Board  of  Commissioners,  who  could  issue  what  orders 
they  chose,  but  had  no  power  to  enforce  them;  and  as  the 
colonial  assemblies  slighted  their  commands  except  when  it 
pleased  them  to  do  otherwise,  much  exasperation  ensued  on 
the  Commissioners'  part.  The  difficulties  would  have  been 
minimized  had  it  not  been  the  habit  of  Newcastle  to  send 
out  as  colonial  officials  the  offscourings  of  the  British  aris- 
tocracy :  and  when  a  British  aristocrat  is  worthless,  nothing 
can  be  more  worthless  than  he.  The  upshot  of  the  situation 
was  that  the  colonists  did  what  they  pleased,  regardless  of 
orders  from  home;  while  yet  the  promulgation  of  those  or- 
ders, aiming  to  defend  injustices  and  iniquities,  kept  up  a 
chronic  and  growing  disaffection  toward  England.  So  it 


QUEM  JUPITER  VULT  PERDERE  305 

had  been  under  Newcastle,  who  had  uniformly  avoided  per- 
sonal annoyance  by  omitting  to  read  the  constant  complaints 
of  the  Commissioners;  but  Bedford  was  a  man  of  another 
stamp,  fond  of  business,  granite  in  his  decisions,  and  resolved 
to  be  master  in  his  department.  It  was  easy  to  surmise  that 
his  appointment  would  hasten  the  drift  of  things  toward  a 
crisis.  England  would  not  tamely  relinquish  her  claim  to 
absolute  jurisdiction  over  her  colonies.  But  the  bulwarks 
of  popular  liberty  were  rising  in  America,  and  every  year 
saw  them  strengthened  and  more  ably  manned.  English 
legislative  opposition  only  denned  and  solidified  the  colonial 
resistance.  What  was  to  be  the  result?  There  would  be  no 
lack  of  English  statesmen  competent  to  consider  it;  men  like 
Pitt,  Murray  and  Townshend  were  already  above  the  horizon 
of  history.  But  it  was  not  by  statesmanship  that  the  issue 
was  to  be  decided.  Man  is  proud  of  his  intellect ;  but  it  is 
generally  observable  that  it  is  the  armed  hand  that  settles 
the  political  problems  of  the  world. 

There  were  in  the  colonies  men  of  ability,  and  of  consid- 
eration, who  were  traitors  to  the  cause  of  freedom.  Such 
were  Thomas  Hutchinson,  a  plausible  hypocrite,  not  devoid 
of  good  qualities,  but  intent  upon  filling  his  pockets  from  the 
public  purse;  Oliver,  a  man  of  less  ability  but  equal  avarice; 
and  William  Shirley,  the  scheming  lawyer  from  England, 
who  had  made  America  his  home  in  order  to  squeeze  a  liv- 
ing out  of  it.  These  men  went  to  England  to  promote  the 
passage  of  a  law  insuring  a  regular  revenue  for  the  civil  list 
from  the  colonists,  independent  of  the  latter's  approval ;  the 
immediate  pretext  being  that  money  was  needed  to  protect 
the  colonies  against  French  encroachments.  The  several 
assemblies  refused  to  consent  to  such  a  tax ;  and  the  ques- 
tion was  then  raised  whether  Parliament  had  not  the  right 
to  override  the  colonists'  will.  Lord  Halifax,  the  First 
Commissioner,  was  urgent  in  favor  of  the  proposition;  he 
was  an  ignorant,  arbitrary  man,  who  laid  out  a  plan  for  the 
subjugation  of  the  colonies  as  lightly  and  willfully  as  he 


3o6  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

might  have  directed  the  ditch-digging  and  fence-building  on 
his  estates.  Murray,  afterward  Lord  Mansfield,  held  that 
Parliament  had  the  requisite  power ;  but  in  the  face  of  the 
united  protest  of  the  colonies,  that  body  laid  the  measure 
aside  for  the  present.  Meanwhile  the  conditions  of  future 
trouble  were  preparing  in  the  Ohio  Valley,  where  French 
and  English  were  making  conflicting  claims  and  planting 
rival  stations ;  and  in  Nova  Scotia,  where  the  town  of  Hali- 
fax was  founded  in  an  uninviting  fir  forest,  and  the  project 
was  mooted  of  transporting  the  French  Acadians  to  some 
place  or  places  where  they  would  cease  to  constitute  a  peril 
by  serving  as  a  stage  for  French  machinations  against  the 
English  rule. 

Another  and  final  war  with  France  was  already  appear- 
ing inevitable ;  the  colonists  must  bear  a  hand  in  it,  but  they 
also  were  at  odds  with  England  herself  on  questions  vital  to 
their  prosperity  and  happiness.  In  the  welter  of  events  of 
the  next  few  years  we  find  a  mingling  of  conditions  delib- 
erately created  (with  a  view,  on  England's  part,  of  checking 
the  independent  tendencies  of  the  Americans  and  of  forcing 
tribute  from  them)  and  of  unforeseen  occurrences  due  to 
fortuitous  causes  beyond  the  calculation  and  control  of  per- 
sons in  power.  Finally,  the  declaration  of  war  against 
France  in  1756 — though  it  had  unofficially  existed  at  least 
two  years  before — and  its  able  management  by  the  great 
Pitt,  enabled  England  to  dictate  a  peace  in  1763  giving  her 
all  she  asked  for  in  Europe  and  the  East,  and  the  whole  of 
the  French  possessions  in  America,  besides  islands  in  the 
West  Indies.  Her  triumph  was  great;  but  she  did  not 
foresee  (though  a  few  acute  observers  did)  that  this  great 
conquest  would  within  a  few  years  fall  into  the  hands  of  the 
colonists,  making  them  potentially  the  greatest  of  nations. 
At  the  era  of  the  Revolution,  the  white  inhabitants  in  the 
colonies  numbered  about  two  millions,  and  the  black  about 
half  a  million. 

In  1754,  the  French  had  upward  of  sixty  posts  west  of 


QUEM  JUPITER  VULT  PERDERE  307 

the  Alleghanies,  and  were  sending  expeditions  to  drive  out 
whatever  Englishmen  could  be  found.  The  Indian  tribes 
who  believed  themselves  to  own  the  land  were  aroused,  and 
appealed  to  the  Americans  to  assist  them;  which  the  latter 
were  willing  to  do,  though  not  for  the  Indians'  sake.  Vir- 
ginia was  especially  concerned,  because  she  claimed  beyond 
the  western  mountains,  and  had  definite  designs  in  that 
direction.  In  order  to  find  out  just  what  the  disposition  of 
the  French  might  be,  Robert  Dinwiddie,  a  Scot,  governor 
of  Virginia,  selected  a  trustworthy  envoy  to  proceed  to  the 
French  commanders  in  the  disputed  districts  and  ask  their 
purposes.  His  choice  fell  upon  George  Washington,  a 
young  man  of  blameless  character,  steady,  courageous  and 
observant,  wise  in  judgment  and  of  mature  mind,  though  he 
was  but  one  and  twenty  years  of  age.  He  was  the  son  of  a 
Virginia  planter,  had  had  such  schooling  as  his  neighbor- 
hood afforded  until  he  was  sixteen,  and  had  then  begun  life 
as  a  surveyor — a  good  calling  in  a  country  whose  inhabi- 
tants were  daily  increasing  and  whose  lands  were  practically 
limitless.  Life  hi  the  open  air,  and  the  custom  of  the  woods 
and  hills,  had  developed  a  frame  originally  powerful  into 
that  of  a  tall  and  hardened  athlete,  able  to  run,  wrestle, 
swim,  leap,  ride,  as  well  as  to  use  the  musket  and  the  sword. 
His  intellect  was  not  brilliant,  but  it  was  clear,  and  his  habit 
of  thought  methodical;  he  was  of  great  modesty,  yet  one 
of  those  who  rise  t6  the  emergency,  and  are  kindled  into 
greater  and  greater  power  by  responsibilities  or  difficulties 
which  would  overwhelm  feebler  or  less  constant  natures. 
None  would  have  been  less  likely  than  "Washington  himself 
to  foretell  his  own  greatness;  but  when  others  believed  in 
him  he  was  compelled  by  his  religious  and  conscientious 
nature  to  act  up  to  their  belief.  The  marvelous  selflessness 
of  the  man,  while  it  concealed  from  him  what  he  was,  im- 
measurably increased  his  power  to  act ;  to  do  his  duty  was 
all  that  he  ever  proposed  to  himself,  and  therefore  he  was 
able  to  concentrate  his  every  faculty  on  that  alone.  The 


308  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

lessons  of  experience  were  never  thrown  away  upon  him, 
and  his  faith  in  an  overruling  Providence  rendered  him 
calm  at  all  times,  except  on  the  rare  occasions  when  some 
subordinate's  incompetence  or  negligence  at  a  critical  mo- 
ment caused  to  burst  forth  in  him  that  terrific  wrath  which 
was  more  appalling  to  its  object  than  the  guns  of  a  battery. 
There  was  always  great  personal  dignity  in  "Washington, 
insomuch  that  nothing  like  comradeship,  in  the  familiar 
sense,  was  ever  possible  to  any  one  with  him ;  he  was  totally 
devoid  of  the  sense  of  humor,  and  was  therefore  debarred 
from  one  whole  region  of  human  sympathies  which  Frank- 
lin loved  to  dwell  in.  It  is  one  of  the  marvels  of  history 
that  a  man  with  a  mind  of  such  moderate  compass  as 
Washington's  should  have  gained  the  reputation,  which  he 
amply  deserved,  of  being  the  foremost  American  of  his  age, 
and  one  of  the  leading  figures  in  human  annals.  But,  in 
truth,  we  attach  far  too  much  weight  to  intellect  in  our  esti- 
mates of  human  worth.  "Washington  was  competent  for  the 
work  that  was  given  him  to  do,  and  that  work  was  one  of 
the  most  important  that  ever  fell  to  the  lot  of  a  man.  Faith, 
firmness,  integrity,  grasp,  simplicity,  and  the  exceptional 
physical  endowment  which  enabled  him  to  support  the  tre- 
mendous fatigues  and  trials  of  his  campaigns,  and  of  the 
opposition  he  encountered  from  selfish  and  shortsighted  poli- 
ticians in  Congress — these  qualities  were  almost  sufficient 
to  account  for  Washington.  Almost,  but  perhaps  not  quite; 
there  must  have  been  in  addition  an  inestimable  personal 
equation  which  fused  all  into  a  harmonious  individuality 
that  isolates  him  in  our  regard :  a  wholeness,  which  can  be 
felt,  but  which  is  hardly  to  be  set  down  in  phrases. 

Washington's  instructions  required  him  to  proceed  to 
Venango  and  Waterford,  a  distance  of  more  than  four  hun- 
dred miles,  through  forests  and  over  mountains,  with  rivers 
to  cross  and  hostile  Indians  to  beware  of;  and  it  was  the 
middle  of  November  when  he  set  out,  with  the  most  inclem- 
ent season  of  the  year  before  him.  Kit  Gist,  a  hunter  and 


QUEM  JUPITER  VULT  PERDERE  309 

trapper  of  the  Natty  Bumppo  order,  was  his  guide;  they 
laid  their  course  through  the  dense  but  naked  forests  as  a 
mariner  over  a  sullen  sea.  Four  or  five  attendants,  includ- 
ing an  interpreter,  made  up  the  party.  Day  after  day  they 
rode,  sleeping  at  night  round  a  fire,  with  the  snow  or  the 
freezing  ram  falling  on  their  blankets,  and  the  immense 
silence  of  the  winter  woods  around  them.  On  the  23d  of 
the  month  they  came  to  the  point  of  junction  between  two 
great  rivers — the  Monongahela  and  the  Alleghany.  A  wild 
and  solitary  spot  it  was,  hardly  visited  till  then  by  white 
men ;  the  land  on  the  fork  was  level  and  broad,  with  mighty 
trees  thronging  upon  it;  opposite  were  steep  bluffs.  The 
Alleghany  hurried  downward  at  the  rate  a  man  would 
walk;  the  Monongahela  loitered,  deep  and  glassy.  Wash- 
ington had  acted  as  adjutant  of  a  body  of  Virginia  troops 
for  the  past  two  or  three  years,  and  he  examined  the  place 
with  the  eyes  of  a  soldier  as  well  as  of  a  surveyor.  It 
seemed  to  him  that  a  fort  and  a  town  could  be  well  placed 
there ;  but  in  the  pure  frosty  air  of  that  ancient  forest,  un- 
tenanted  save  by  wild  beasts,  there  was  no  foreshadowing 
of  the  grimy  smoke  and  roar,  the  flaring  smelting- works, 
the  crowded  and  eager  population  of  the  Pittsburgh  that 
was  to  be.  Having  fixed  the  scene  in  his  memory,  Wash- 
ington rode  his  horse  down  the  river  bank,  and  plunging 
hi  to  the  icy  current,  swam  across.  On  the  northwest  shore 
a  fire  was  built,  where  the  party  dried  their  garments,  and 
slept  the  sleep  of  frontiersmen. 

Conducted  now  by  the  Delawares,  they  crossed  low- 
lying,  fertile  lands  to  Logstown,  where  they  got  news  of 
a  junction  between  French  troops  from  Louisiana  and  from 
Erie.  Arriving  in  due  season  at  Venango,  Washington 
found  the  French  officer  in  command  there  very  positive 
that  the  Ohio  was  theirs,  and  that  they  would  keep  it ;  they 
admitted  that  the  English  outnumbered  them;  but  "they 
are  too  dilatory,"  said  the  Frenchman,  staring  up  with  an 
affectation  of  superciliousness  at  the  tall,  blue-eyed  young 


3io  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES 

Virginian.  The  latter  thanked  the  testy  Gaul,  with  his  cus- 
tomary grave  courtesy,  and  continued  his  journey  to  Fort 
Le  Boeuf .  It  was  a  structure  characteristic  of  the  place  and 
period;  a  rude  but  effective  redoubt  of  logs  and  clay,  with 
the  muzzles  of  cannon  pouting  from  the  embrasures,  and 
more  than  two  hundred  boats  and  canoes  for  the  trip  down 
the  river.  "I  shall  seize  every  Englishman  in  the  valley," 
was  the  polite  assurance  of  the  commander;  but,  being  a 
man  of  pith  himself,  he  knew  another  when  he  saw  him, 
and  offered  Washington  the  hospitalities  of  the  post.  But 
the  serious  young  soldier  had  no  taste  for  hobnobbing,  and 
returned  at  once  to  Venango,  where  he  found  his  horses 
unavailable,  and  continued  southward  on  foot,  meeting  bad 
weather  and  deep  snow.  He  borrowed  a  deerskin  shirt  and 
leggins  from  the  tallest  of  the  Indians,  dismissed  his  at- 
tendants, left  the  Indian  trail,  and  struck  out  for  the  Forks 
by  compass,  with  Gist  as  his  companion.  A  misguided  red 
man,  hoping  for  glory  from  the  white  chief's  scalp,  prepared 
an  ambush,  and  as  "Washington  passed  within  a  few  paces, 
pulled  the  trigger  on  him.  He  did  not  know  that  the  des- 
tiny of  half  the  world  hung  upon  his  aim;  but  indeed  the 
bullet  was  never  molded  that  could  draw  blood  from 
Washington.  The  red  man  missed;  and  the  next  moment 
Gist  had  him  helpless,  with  a  knife  at  his  throat.  But  no: 
the  man  who  could  pour  out  the  lives  of  his  country's 
enemies,  and  of  his  own  soldiers,  without  stint,  when  duty 
demanded  it,  and  could  hang  a  gallant  and  gently  nurtured 
youth  as  a  spy,  was  averse  from  bloodshed  when  only  his 
insignificant  self  was  concerned.  Gist  must  sulkily  put  up 
his  knife,  and  the  would-be  assassin  was  suffered  to  depart 
hi  peace.  But  in  order  to  avoid  the  possible  consequences 
of  this  magnanimity,  the  envoy  and  his  companion  traveled 
without  pausing  for  more  than  sixty  miles.  And  then,  here 
was  the  Alleghany  to  cross  again,  and  no  horse  to  help  one. 
Swimming  was  out  of  the  question,  even  for  the  iron  Wash- 
ington, for  the  river  was  hurtling  with  jagged  cakes  of  ice. 


QUEM  JUPITER  VULT  PERDERE  311 

A  day's  hacking  with  a  little  hatchet  cut  down  trees  enough 
• — not  apple  trees — to  make  a  raft,  on  which  they  adven- 
tured ;  but  in  mid-stream  Washington's  pole  upset  him,  and 
he  was  fain  to  get  ashore  on  an  island.  There  must  they 
pass  the  night;  and  so  cold  was  it,  that  the  next  morning 
they  were  able  to  reach  the  mainland  dry  shod,  on  the  ice. 
What  was  crossing  the  Delaware  (almost  exactly  twenty- 
three  years  afterward)  compared  to  this?  Washington  was 
destined  to  do  much  of  his  work  amid  snow  and  ice ;  but  for 
aught  anybody  could  say,  the  poles  or  the  equator  were  all 
one  to  him. 

In  consequence  of  his  report  a  fort  was  begun  on  the  site 
of  Pittsburgh,  and  he  was  appointed  lieutenant-colonel  to 
take  charge  of  it,  with  a  hundred  and  fifty  men,  and  orders 
to  destroy  whomsoever  presumed  to  stay  him.  Two  hun- 
dred square  miles  of  fertile  Ohio  lands  were  to  be  their 
reward.  An  invitation  to  other  colonies  to  join  in  the  as- 
sertion of  English  ownership  met  with  scanty  response,  or 
none  at  all.  The  idea  of  a  union  was  in  the  air,  but  it  was 
complicated  with  that  old  bugbear  of  a  regular  revenue  to 
be  exacted  by  act  of  Parliament,  which  Shirley  and  the 
others  still  continued  to  press  with  hungry  zeal ;  while  the 
assemblies  were  not  less  set  upon  making  all  grants  an- 
nual, with  specifications  as  to  person  and  object.  While  the 
matter  hung  in  the  wind,  the  Virginians  were  exposed  to 
superior  forces;  but  in  the  spring  of  1754  Washington,  with 
forty  men,  surprised  a  party  under  Jumonville,  defeated 
them,  killed  Jumonville,  and  took  the  survivors  prisoners. 
Washington  was  exposed  to  the  thickest  showers  of  the  bul- 
lets; they  whistled  to  him  familiarly,  and  "believe  me,"  he 
assured  a  correspondent,  "there  is  something  charming  in 
the  sound."  His  life  was  to  be  sweetened  by  a  great  deal 
of  that  kind  of  charm. 

But  the  French  were  gathering  like  hornets,  and  the 
Lieutenant-colonel  must  needs  take  refuge  in  a  stockaded 
post  named  Fort  Necessity,  where  his  small  force  was  be- 


312  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES 

sieged  by  seven  hundred  French  and  Indians  who,  in  a  nine 
hours'  attack,  killed  thirty  of  his  men,  but  used  up  most  of 
their  own  ammunition.  A  parley  resulted  in  Washington's 
marching  out  with  all  his  survivors  and  their  baggage  and 
retiring  from  the  Ohio  valley.  The  war  was  begun ;  and  it 
is  worth  noting  that  Washington's  command  to  "fire!"  on 
Jumonville's  party  was  the  word  that  began  it.  But  still 
the  other  colonies  held  off.  The  Six  Nations  began  to  mur- 
mur: "The  French  are  men,"  said  they;  "you  are  like 
women."  In  June,  1754,  a  convocation  or  congress  of  dep- 
uties from  all  colonies  north  of  the  Potomac  came  together 
at  Albany.  Franklin  was  among  them,  with  the  draught  of 
a  plan  of  union  in  his  ample  pocket,  and  dauntless  and  deep 
thoughts  in  his  broad  mind.  He  was  always  far  in  advance 
of  his  time;  one  of  the  most  "modern"  men  of  that  century; 
but  he  had  the  final  excellence  of  wisdom  which  consists  in 
never  forcing  his  contemporaries  to  bite  off  more  than  there 
was  reasonable  prospect  of  their  being  able  to  chew.  He 
lifted  them  gently  up  step  after  step  of  the  ascent  toward 
the  stars. 

Philadelphia  is  a  central  spot  (this  was  the  gist  of  his 
proposal),  so  let  it  be  the  seat  of  our  federal  government. 
Let  us  have  a  triennial  grand  council  to  originate  bills, 
allowing  King  George  to  appoint  the  governor-general  who 
may  have  a  negative  voice,  and  who  shall  choose  the  mili- 
tary officers,  as  against  the  civil  appointees  of  the  council. 
All  war  measures,  external  land  purchases  and  organization, 
general  laws  and  taxes  should  be  the  province  of  the  federal 
government,  but  each  colony  should  keep  its  private  consti- 
tution, and  money  should  issue  only  by  common  consent. 
Once  a  year  should  the  council  meet,  to  sit  not  more  than 
six  weeks,  under  a  speaker  of  their  own  choosing. — In  the 
debate,  the  scheme  was  closely  criticised,  but  the  suave 
wielder  of  the  lightning  gently  disarmed  all  opponents,  and 
won  a  substantial  victory — "not  altogether  to  my  mind"; 
but  he  insisted  upon  no  counsel  of  perfection.  England,  and 


QUEM   JUPITER  VULT   PERDERE  313 

some  of  the  colonies  themselves,  were  somewhat  uneasy  after 
thinking  it  over;  mutual  sympathy  is  not  created  by  reason. 
England  doubted  on  other  grounds ;  a  united  country  might 
be  more  easy  to  govern  than  thirteen  who  each  demanded 
special  treatment ;  but  then,  what  if  the  federation  decline  to 
be  governed  at  all?  Meanwhile,  there  was  the  federation ;  and 
Franklin,  looking  westward,  foresaw  the  Nineteenth  Century. 
Doubtless,  however,  outside  pressure  would  be  necessary 
to  re-enforce  the  somewhat  lukewarm  sentiment  among  the 
colonies  in  favor  of  union.  A  review  of  their  several  condi- 
tions at  this  time  would  show  general  prosperity  and  enjoy- 
ment of  liberty,  but  great  unlikenesses  in  manners  and 
customs  and  private  prejudices.  Virginia,  most  important 
of  the  southern  group,  showed  the  apparent  contradiction  of 
a  people  with  republican  ideas  living  after  the  style  of  aris- 
tocrats; breeding  great  gentlemen  like  Washington,  Jeffer- 
son, Madison  and  Patrick  Henry,  who  were  to  be  leaders  in 
the  work  of  founding  and  defending  the  first  great  democ- 
racy of  the  world.  Maryland  was  a  picturesque  principality 
under  the  rule  of  a  dissolute  young  prince,  who  enjoyed  a 
great  private  revenue  from  his  possessions,  and  yet  inter- 
fered but  little  with  the  individual  freedom  of  his  subjects. 
Pennsylvania  was  administering  itself  on  a  basis  of  sheer 
civic  equality,  and  was  absorbing  from  Franklin  the  princi- 
ples of  liberal  thought  and  education.  New  York  was  so 
largely  tinged  with  Dutchmanship  that  it  resented  more 
than  the  others  the  authority  of  alien  England,  and  fought 
its  royal  governors  to  the  finish.  New  England  was  an 
aggregation  of  independent  towns,  each  a  little  democracy, 
full  of  religious  and  educational  vigor.  In  Delaware,  John 
Woolman  the  tailor  was  denouncing  slavery  with  all  the 
zeal  and  arguments  of  the  Garrisons  of  a  century  later. 
These  were  incongruous  elements  to  be  bound  into  a  fagot; 
but  there  was  a  policy  being  consolidated  in  England  which 
would  presently  give  them  good  reason  for  standing  together 
to  secure  rights  which  were  more  precious  than  private  pet 
U.S.— 14  VOL.  I. 


314  HISTORY    OF   THE    UNITED   STATES 

traditions  and  peculiarities.  Newcastle  became  head  of  the 
English  government;  he  appointed  the  absurd  Duke  of 
Cumberland,  captain-general  of  the  English  army,  to  the 
direction  of  American  military  affairs ;  and  he  picked  out  an 
obstinate,  ruffianly,  stupid  martinet  of  a  Perthshire  Scotch- 
man, sixty  years  old  and  of  ruined  fortunes,  to  lead  the 
English  forces  against  the  French  in  America.  Braddock 
went  over  armed  with  the  new  and  despotic  mutiny  bill, 
and  with  directions  to  divest  all  colonial  army  officers  of 
their  rank  while  in  his  service.  He  was  also  to  exact  a 
revenue  by  royal  prerogative,  and  the  governors  were  to 
collect  a  fund  to  be  expended  for  colonial  military  opera- 
tions. This  was  Newcastle's  notion  of  what  was  suitable 
for  the  occasion.  In  the  meantime  Shirley,  persistently 
malevolent,  advocated  parliamentary  taxation  of  the  colo- 
nies and  a  congress  of  royal  governors;  and  to  the  argu- 
ments of  Franklin  against  the  plan,  suggested  colonial 
representation  in  Parliament:  which  Franklin  disapproved 
unless  all  colonial  disabilities  be  removed,  and  they  become 
in  all  political  respects  an  integral  portion  of  England. 
During  the  discussion,  the  colonies  themselves  were  resist- 
ing the  royal  prerogative  with  embarrassing  unanimity. 
Braddock,  on  landing  and  finding  no  money  ready,  was 
exceeding  wroth;  but  the  helpless  governors  told  him  that 
nothing  short  of  an  act  of  Parliament  would  suffice ;  possibly 
not  even  that.  Taxation  was  the  one  cry  of  every  royal 
office-holder  in  America.  What  sort  of  a  tax  should  it  be? — 
Well,  a  stamp-tax  seemed  the  easiest  method ;  a  stamp,  like 
a  mosquito,  sucks  but  little  blood  at  a  time,  but  mosquitoes 
in  the  aggregate  draw  a  great  deal.  But  the  stamp  act  was 
to  be  delayed  eleven  years  more,  and  then  its  authors  were 
to  receive  an  unpleasant  surprise. 

There  was  a  strong  profession  of  reluctance  on  both  the 
French  and  English  side  to  come  formally  to  blows ;  both 
sent  large  bodies  of  troops  to  the  Ohio  valley,  "but  only  for 
defense. ' '  Braddock  was  ready  to  advance  in  April,  if  only 


QUEM   JUPITER  VULT   PERDERE  315 

he  had  "horses  and  carriages";  which  by  Franklin's  exer- 
tions were  supplied.  The  bits  of  dialogue  and  comment  in 
which  this  grizzled  nincompoop  was  an  interlocutor,  or  of 
which  he  was  the  theme,  are  as  amusing  as  a  page  from  a 
comedy  of  Shakespeare.  Braddock  has  been  called  brave; 
but  the  term  is  inappropriate;  he  could  fly  into  a  rage 
when  his  brutal  or  tyrannical  instincts  were  questioned  or 
thwarted,  and  become  insensible,  for  a  time,  even  to  physi- 
cal danger.  Ignorance,  folly  and  self-conceit  not  seldom 
make  a  man  seem  fearless  who  is  a  poltroon  at  heart. 
Braddock's  death  was  a  better  one  than  he  deserved;  he 
raged  about  the  field  like  a  dazed  bull ;  fly  he  could  not ;  he 
was  incapable  of  adopting  any  intelligent  measures  to  save 
his  troops ;  on  the  contrary  he  kept  reiterating  conventional 
orders  in  a  manner  that  showed  his  wits  were  gone.  The 
bullet  that  dropped  him  did  him  good  service ;  but  his  honor 
was  so  little  sensitive  that  he  felt  no  gratitude  at  being  thus 
saved  the  consequences  of  one  of  the  most  disgraceful  and 
willfully  incurred  defeats  that  ever  befell  an  English  gen- 
eral. The  English  troops  upon  whom,  according  to  Brad- 
dock,  "it  was  impossible  that  the  savages  should  make  any 
impression^"  huddled  together,  and  shot  down  their  own 
officers  in  their  blundering  volleys.  In  the  narrow  wood 
path  they  could  not  see  the  enemy,  who  fired  from  behind 
trees  at  their  leisure.  Half  of  the  men,  and  sixty-three  out 
of  the  eighty-six  officers,  were  killed  or  wounded.  In  that 
hell  of  explosions,  smoke,  yells  and  carnage,  Washington 
was  clear-headed  and  alert,  and  passed  to  and  fro  amid  the 
rain  of  bullets  as  if  his  body  were  no  more  mortal  than  his 
soul.  The  contingent  of  Virginia  troops — the  "raw  Ameri- 
can militia,"  as  Braddock  had  called  them,  "who  have  little 
courage  or  good  will,  from  whom  I  expect  almost  no  mili- 
tary service,  though  I  have  employed  the  best  officers  to 
drill  them": — these  men  did  almost  the  only  fighting  that 
was  done  on  the  English  side,  but  they  were  too  few  to 
avert  the  disaster. 


316  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

The  expedition  had  set  out  from  Turtle  Creek  on  the 
Monongahela  on  the  ninth  of  July — twelve  hundred  men. 
The  objective  point  was  Fort  Duquesne,  "which  can  hardly 
detain  me  above  three  or  four  days,"  remarked  the  dull 
curmudgeon.  No  scouts  were  thrown  out:  they  walked 
straight  into  the  ambuscade  which  some  two  hundred 
French  and  six  hundred  Indians  had  prepared  for  them. 
The  slaughter  lasted  two  hours;  there  was  no  maneuver- 
ing. Thirty  men  of  the  three  Virginia  companies  were  left 
alive;  they  stood  their  ground  to  the  last,  while  the  British 
regulars  "ran  as  sheep  before  hounds,"  leaving  everything 
to  the  enemy.  Washington  did  whatever  was  possible  to 
prevent  the  retreat  from  becoming  a  blind  panic.  When 
the  rout  reached  the  camp,  Dunbar,  the  officer  in  charge 
there,  destroyed  everything,  to  the  value  of  half  a  million 
dollars,  and  ran  with  the  rest.  Reviewing  the  affair, 
Franklin  remarks  with  a  demure  arching  of  the  eyebrow 
that  it  "gave  us  Americans  the  first  suspicion  that  our 
exalted  ideas  of  the  prowess  of  British  regular  troops  had 
not  been  well  founded." 

It  was  indeed  an  awakening  for  the  colonists.  For  all 
their  bold  resistance  to  oppression,  they  had  never  ceased  to 
believe  that  an  English  soldier  was  the  supreme  and  final 
expression  of  trained  and  disciplined  force;  and  now,  be- 
fore their  almost  incredulous  eyes,  the  flower  of  the  British 
army  had  been  beaten,  and  the  bloody  remnant  stampeded 
into  a  shameful  flight  by  a  few  hundred  painted  savages 
and  Frenchmen.  They  all  had  been  watching  Braddock's 
march;  and  they  never  forgot  the  lesson  of  his  defeat. 
From  that  time,  the  British  regular  was  to  them  only  a 
"lobster-back,"  more  likely,  when  it  came  to  equal  conflict 
with  themselves,  to  run  away  than  to  stand  his  ground. 

Instead  of  throwing  themselves  into  the  arms  of  France, 
however,  the  colonists  loyally  addressed  themselves  to  help- 
ing King  George  out  of  his  scrape ;  and  though  they  would 
not  let  him  tax  them,  they  hesitated  not  to  tax  themselves. 


QUEM  JUPITER  VULT  PERDERE  317 

Pennsylvania  raised  fifty  thousand  pounds,  and  Massachu- 
setts sent  near  eight  thousand  men  to  aid  in  driving  the 
French  from  the  northern  border.  Acadia's  time  had  come. 
Though  the  descendants  of  the  Breton  peasants,  who  dated 
their  settlement  from  1604,  had  since  the  Peace  of  Utrecht 
nominally  belonged  to  England,  yet  their  sentiments  and 
mode  of  lif e  had  been  unaltered ;  Port  Royal  had  been  little 
changed  by  calling  it  Annapolis,  and  the  simple,  old-fash- 
ioned Catholics  loved  their  homes  with  all  the  tenacity  of  six 
unbroken  generations.  Their  feet  were  familiar  in  the  paths 
of  a  hundred  and  fifty  quiet  and  industrious  years;  their 
houses  nestled  in  their  lowly  places  like  natural  features  of 
the  landscape ;  their  fields  and  herds  and  the  graves  of  their 
forefathers  sweetened  and  consecrated  the  land.  They  were 
a"chaste,  mduttrious,  homely,  pious,  but  not  an  intellectual 
people ;  ai^d  to  such  the  instinct  of  home  is  far  stronger  than 
in  more  highly  cultivated  races.  They  had  prospered  in 
their  modest  degree,  and  multiplied;  so  that  now  they  num- 
bered sixteen  thousand  men,  women  and  children.  During 
the  past  few  years,  however,  they  had  been  subjected  to  the 
unrestrained  brutality  of  English  administration  in  its  worst 
form ;  they  had  no  redress  at  law,  their  property  could  be 
taken  from  them  without  payment  or  recourse;  if  they  did 
not  keep  their  tyrant's  fires  burning,  "the  soldiers  shall  ab- 
solutely take  their  houses  for  fuel."  Estate-titles,  records, 
all  that  could  identify  and  guarantee  then*  ownership  in  the 
means  and  conditions  of  livelihood,  were  taken;  even  their 
boats  and  their  antiquated  firearms  were  sequestrated.  And 
orders  were  actually  given  to  the  soldiers  to  punish  any  mis- 
behavior summarily  upon  the  first  Acadian  who  came  to 
hand,  whether  or  not  he  were  guilty  of,  or  aware  of,  the 
offense,  and  with  absolutely  no  concern  for  the  formality 
of  arrest  or  trial.  In  all  the  annals  of  Spanish  brutality, 
there  is  nothing  more  disgraceful  to  humanity  than  the  sys- 
tematic and  enjoined  treatment  of  these  innocent  Bretona 
by  the  English,  even  before  the  consummating  outrage 


3i8  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

which  made  the  whole  civilized  world  stare  in  indignant 
amazement. 

It  is  a  matter  for  keen  regret  that  men  born  on  our  soil 
should  have  been  even  involuntarily  associated  with  this 
episode.  The  design  was  kept  a  secret  from  all  until  the 
last  moment ;  but  one  could  wish  that  some  American  had 
then  committed  an  act  of  insubordination,  though  at  the  cost 
of  his  life,  by  way  of  indicating  the  detestation  which  all 
civilized  and  humane  minds  must  feel  for  such  an  act.  The 
colonists  knew  the  value  of  liberty ;  they  had  made  sacrifices 
for  it;  they  had  felt  the  shadow  of  oppression;  and  they 
might  see,  in  the  treatment  of  the  Acadians,  what  would 
have  been  their  fate  had  they  yielded  to  the  despotic  in- 
stincts of  England.  The  best  and  the  worst  that  can  be 
said  of  them  is  that  they  obeyed  orders,  and  looked  on  while 
the  iniquity  was  being  perpetrated. 

The  force  of  provincials  and  regulars  landed  without 
molestation,  and  captured  the  feeble  forts  with  the  loss  of 
but  twenty  killed.  The  Acadians  agreed  to  take  the  oath 
of  fidelity,  but  stipulated  not  to  be  forced  to  bear  arms 
against  their  own  countrymen.  General  Charles  Law- 
rence, the  lieutenant-governor  of  Nova  Scotia,  replied  to 
their  plea  that  they  be  allowed  to  have  their  boats  and  guns, 
that  it  was  "highly  arrogant,  insidious  and  insulting";  and 
Halifax,  another  of  the  companions  in  infamy,  added  that 
they  wanted  their  boats  for  "carrying  provisions  to  the 
enemy" — there  being  no  enemy  nearer  than  Quebec.  As 
for  the  guns,  "All  Roman  Catholics  are  restrained  from 
having  arms,  and  are  subject  to  penalties  if  arms  are  found 
in  their  houses." — "Not  the  want  of  arms,  but  our  con- 
sciences, would  engage  us  not  to  revolt,"  pleaded  the  un- 
happy men. — "What  excuse  can  you  make,"  bellows  Hali 
fax,  "for  treating  this  government  with  such  indignity  as 
to  expound  to  them  the  nature  of  fidelity?"  The  Acadians 
agreed  to  take  the  oath  unconditionally:  "By  British 
statute,"  they  were  thereupon  informed,  "having  once  re- 


QUEM  JUPITER  VULT  PERDERc  319 

fused,  you  cannot  after  take  the  oath,  but  are  popish  re- 
cusants." Chief -justice  Belcher,  a  third  of  these  British 
moguls,  declared  they  obstructed  the  progress  of  the  settle- 
ment, and  that  all  of  them  should  be  deported  from  the 
province.  Proclamation  was  then  made,  ordering  them  to 
assemble  at  their  respective  posts ;  and  in  the  morning  they 
obeyed,  leaving  their  homes,  to  which,  though  they  knew  it 
not,  they  were  never  to  return.  "Your  lands  and  tene- 
ments, cattle  of  all  kinds,  and  livestock  of  all  sorts,  are 
forfeited  to  the  crown,"  they  were  told,  "and  you  your- 
selves are  to  be  removed  from  this  province."  They  were 
kept  prisoners,  without  food,  till  the  ships  should  be  ready. 
Not  only  were  they  torn  from  their  homes,  but  families  were 
separated,  sons  from  their  mothers,  husbands  from  their 
wives,  daughters  from  their  parents,  and,  as  Longfellow 
has  pictured  to*  us,  lovers  from  one  another.  Those  who 
tried  to  escape  were  hunted  by  the  soldiers  like  wild  beasts, 
and  "if  they  can  find  a  pretext  to  kill  them,  they  will,"  said 
a  British  officer.  They  were  scattered,  helpless,  friendless 
and  destitute,  all  up  and  down  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  their 
villages  were  laid  waste.  Lord  Loudoun,  British  com- 
mander-in-chief  in  America,  on  receiving  a  petition  from 
some  of  them  written  in  French,  was  so  enraged  not  only  at 
their  petitioning,  but  that  they  should  presume  to  do  so  in 
their  own  language,  that  he  had  five  of  their  leading  men 
arrested,  consigned  to  England,  and  sent  as  common  sea- 
men on  English  men-of-war.  No  detail  was  wanting,  from 
first  to  last,  to  make  the  crime  of  the  Acadian  deportation 
perfect;  and  only  an  Irishman,  Edmund  Burke,  lifted  his 
voice  to  say  that  the  deed  was  inhuman,  and  done  "upon 
pretenses  that,  in  the  eye  of  an  honest  man,  are  not  worth 
a  farthing."  But  Burke  was  not  in  Parliament  until  eleven 
years  after  the  Acadians  were  scattered. 

The  incident,  from  an  external  point  of  view,  does  not 
belong  to  the  history  of  the  United  States.  Yet  is  it  per- 
tinent thereto,  as  showing  of  what  enormities  the  English 


320  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

of  that  age  were  capable.  Their  entire  conduct  during  this 
French  war  was  dishonorable,  and  often  atrocious.  Forget- 
ting the  facts  of  history,  we  often  smile  at  the  grumblings 
of  the  Continental  nations  anent  "Perfidious  Albion"  and 
"British  gold."  But  the  acts  committed  by  the  English 
government  during  these  years  fully  justify  every  charge  of 
corruption,  treachery  and  political  profligacy  that  has  ever 
been  brought  against  them.  It  was  a  strange  age,  in  which 
a  great  and  noble  people  were  mysteriously  hurried  into 
sins,  follies  and  disgraces  seemingly  foreign  to  their  charac- 
ter. It  was  because  the  people  had  surrendered  their  gov- 
ernment into  alien  and  shameless  hands.  They  deserved 
their  punishment;  for  it  is  nothing  less  than  a  crime,  hav- 
ing known  liberty,  either  to  deny  it  to  others,  or  for  the  sake 
of  earthly  advantage  to  consent  to  any  compromise  of  it  in 
ourselves.  * 


CHAPTER   TWELFTH 

THE    PLAINS    OF    ABRAHAM    AND     THE 
STAMP    ACT 

HE  gathering  of  soldiers  from  France,  England 
and  the  colonies,  and  the  rousing  of  the  In- 
dians on  one  side  and  the  other,  made  the 
great  forest  which  stretched  across  northern 
New  York  and  New  England  populous  with 
troops  and  resonant  with  the  sounds  of  war. 
Those  solemn  woodland  aisles  and  quiet  glades  were  dese- 
crated by  marchings  and  campings,  and  in  the  ravines  and 
recesses  lay  the  corpses* of  men  in  uniforms,  the  grim  re- 
mains of  peasants  who  had  been  born  three  thousand  miles 
away.  Passing  through  the  depths  of  the  wilderness,  ap- 
parently remote  from  all  human  habitation,  suddenly  one 


THE   PLAINS   OF   ABRAHAM  321 

would  come  upon  a  fortress,  frowning  with  heavy  guns,  and 
surrounded  by  the  log-built  barracks  of  the  soldiery,  who,  in 
the  intervals  of  siege  and  combat,  passed  their  days  impa- 
tiently, thinking  of  the  distant  homes  from  which  they  came, 
and  muttering  their  discontent  at  inaction  and  uncertainty. 
The  region  round  the  junction  of  Lake  George  and  Lake 
Champlain,  where  stood  the  strongholds  of  Fort  Edward 
and  Fort  William  Henry,  of  Crown  Point  and  Ticonderoga, 
was  the  scene  of  many  desperate  conflicts,  between  1758  and 
1780;  and  the  wolves  of  the  forest,  and  the  bears  of  the 
Vermont  mountains,  were  disturbed  in  their  lairs  by  the 
tumults  and  .the  restless  evolutions,  and  wandered  eastward 
until  they  came  among  the  startled  hamlets  and  frontier 
farms  of  the  settlements.  The  savagery  of  man,  surpassing 
theirs,  drove  them  to  seek  shelter  amid  the  abodes  of  man 
himself;  but  there  was  no  safety  for  them  there,  as  many 
a  bloody  head  and  paws,  trophies  of  rustic  marksmanship, 
attested.  The  dominion  of  the  wilderness  was  approaching 
its  end  in  America.  Everywhere  you  might  hear  the  roll  of 
the  drum,  and  there  was  no  family  but  had  its  soldier,  and 
few  that  did  not  have  their  dead.  There  were  a  score  of 
thousand  British  troops  in  the  northern  provinces,  and  every 
week  brought  rumors  and  alarms,  and  portents  of  victory 
or  defeat.  The  haggard  post-rider  came  galloping  in  with 
news  from  north  and  west,  which  the  throng  of  anxious 
village  folks  gather  to  hear.  There  have  been  skirmishes, 
successes,  retreats,  surprises,  massacres,  retaliations;  there 
is  news  from  Niagara  and  Oswego  on  far  away  Lake  Onta- 
rio, and  echoes  of  the  guns  at  Ticonderoga.  There  are  proc- 
lamations for  enlistment,  and  requisitions  for  ammunition; 
and  the  tailors  in  the  towns  are  busy  cutting  out  scarlet 
uniforms  and  decorating  them  with  gold  braid.  Markets 
for  the  supply  of  troops  are  established  in  the  woods,  far 
from  any  settled  habitations,  where  shrewd  farmers  bargain 
with  the  hungry  soldiery  for  carcasses  of  pigs  and  beeves, 
and  for  disheveled  hens  from  distant  farmyards;  the 


322  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

butcher's  shop  is  kept  under  the  spreading  branches  of 
the  trees,  from,  whose  low  limbs  dangle  the  tempting  wares ; 
and  a  stump  serves  as  a  chopping-block.  Under  the  shrub- 
bery, where  the  sun  cannot  penetrate,  are  stored  home-made 
firkins  full  of  yellow  butter,  and  great  cheeses,  and  heaps  of 
substantial  home-baked  bread.  Kegs  of  hard  cider  and 
spruce  beer  and  perhaps  more  potent  brews  are  abroach,  and 
behind  the  haggling  and  jesting  and  bustle  you  may  catch 
the  sound  of  muskets  or  the  whoop  of  the  Indians  from  afar. 
Meanwhile,  in  the  settlements,  all  manner  of  industries  were 
stimulated,  and  a  great  number  of  women  throughout  the 
country,  left  to  take  care  of  their  children  and  themselves 
by  the  absence  of  their  men-folk,  went  into  business  of  all 
kinds,  and  drove  a  thriving  trade.  Lotteries  were  also  pop- 
ular, the  promoters  retaining  a  good  share  of  the  profits 
after  the  nominal  object  of  the  transaction  had  been  at- 
tained. It  was  well  that  the  war  operations  were  carried 
on  far  from  the  populous  regions,  so  that  only  the  fighters 
themselves  were  involved  in  the  immediate  consequences, 
The  battle  was  for  the  homes  of  posterity,  where  as  yet  the 
woodman's  ax  had  never  been  heard,  except  to  provide  de- 
fenses against  death,  instead  of  habitations  for  life.  Those 
who  could  not  go  to  the  war  sat  round  the  broad  country 
hearthstones  at  night,  with  the  fire  of  logs  leaping  up  the 
great  cavern  of  the  chimney,  telling  stories  of  past  exploits, 
speculating  as  to  the  present,  praying  perhaps  for  the  future, 
and  pausing  now  and  then  to  listen  to  strange  noises  abroad 
in  the  night-ridden  sky — strains  of  ghostly  music  playing  a 
march  or  a  charge,  or  the  thunder  of  phantom  guns. 

Governor  Shirley,  who  while  in  France  in  1749  had  mar- 
ried a  French  wife  and  brought  her  home  with  him,  and 
who  for  a  while  had  the  chief  command  of  the  king's  forces 
in  America,  was  in  disfavor  with  the  people,  who  suspected 
his  wife  of  sending  treasonable  news  to  the  enemy;  and 
having  also  proved  inefficient  as  a  soldier,  he  was  recalled 
to  England  in  1756,  and  vanished  thenceforth  as  a  factor  in 


THE   PLAINS   OF   ABRAHAM  323 

American  affairs,  in  which  his  influence  had  always  been 
selfish  and  illiberal,  if  not  worse.  Thomas  Pownall  suc- 
ceeded him  and  held  his  position  for  three  years,  when  he 
was  transferred  to  South  Carolina.  He  was  a  man  of  fash- 
ion, and  of  little  weight.  From  the  shuffle  of  men  who 
appeared  and  disappeared  during  the  early  years  of  the  war, 
a  few  stand  out  in  permanent  distinctness.  Washington's 
reputation  steadily  increased;  Amherst,  Wolfe  and  Lyman 
achieved  distinction  on  the  English  side,  and  Montcalm  and 
Dieskau  on  the  French.  In  1757,  General  Loudoun,  one  of 
the  agents  of  the  despoiling  of  Acadia,  made  a  professed 
attempt  to  capture  Louisburg,  which  had  been  given  back  to 
the  French  at  the  last  peace ;  but  after  wasting  a  summer  in 
vain  drilling  of  his  forces,  retired  in  dismay  on  learning  that 
the  French  fleet  outnumbered  his  own  by  one  vessel.  The 
place  was  bombarded  and  taken  the  next  year  by  Amherst 
and  Wolfe,  but  Halifax  was  the  English  headquarters  in 
that  region.  Before  this  however,  in  the  summer  of  1755, 
immediately  after  the  defeat  of  Braddock,  an  army  of  New 
Englanders  assembled  at  Albany  to  capture  Crown  Point, 
where  the  French  had  called  together  every  able-bodied  man 
available.  William  Johnson  was  commander,  and  associ- 
ated with  him  was  Phinehas  Lyman,  a  natural-born  soldier. 
They  marched  to  the  southern  shore  of  what  the  French 
called  the  Lake  of  the  Holy  Sacrament,  but  which  Johnson 
thought  would  better  be  named  Lake  George.  The  army, 
with  its  Indian  allies,  numbered  about  thirty-four  hundred; 
a  camping  ground  was  cleared,  but  no  intrenchments  were 
thrown  up ;  no  enemy  seemed  to  be  within  reach.  Dieskau, 
informed  of  the  advance,  turned  from  his  design  against 
Oswego  in  the  west,  and  marched  for  Fort  Edward,  in  the 
rear  of  Johnson's  troops.  _  By  a  mistake  of  the  guide  he 
found  himself  approaching  the  open  camp.  Johnson  sent  a 
Massachusetts  man,  Ephraim  Williams,  with  a  thousand 
troops,  to  save  Fort  Edward.  They  nearly  fell  into  an  am- 
bush; as  it  was,  their  party  was  overpowered  by  the  enemy  j 


324  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

Williams  was  killed,  but  Whiting  of  Connecticut  guarded 
the  retreat.  During  the  action,  a  redoubt  of  logs  had  been 
constructed  in  the  camp,  and  was  strengthened  with  bag- 
gage and  wagons.  The  Americans,  with  their  fowling- 
pieces,  defended  this  place  for  five  hours  against  two  hun- 
dred regular  French  troops,  six  hundred  Canadians,  and  as 
many  Indians.  Johnson  received  a  scratch  early  in  the 
engagement,  and  made  it  an  excuse  to  retire;  and  Lyman 
assumed  direction.  Dieskau  bravely  led  the  French  regu- 
lars, nearly  all  of  whom  were  killed;  he  was  four  times 
wounded;  the  Canadians  were  intimidated.  At  length, 
about  half  past  four  in  the  afternoon,  the  French  re- 
treated, though  the  American  losses  equaled  theirs;  a 
body  of  them  were  pursued  by  Macginnes  of  New  Hamp- 
shire and  left  their  baggage  behind  them  in  their  haste; 
but  the  body  of  Macginnes  also  remained  on  the  field.  The 
credit  for  this  battle,  won  by  Lyman,  was  given  by  the 
English  government  to  Johnson,  who  received  a  baronetcy 
and  a  "tip"  of  five  thousand  pounds.  It  would  have  been 
the  first  step  in  a  series  of  successes  had  not  Johnson,  in- 
stead of  following  up  his  victory,  timidly  remained  in  camp, 
building  Fort  William  Henry ;  and  when  winter  approached, 
he  disbanded  the  New  Englanders  and  retired.  The  French 
had  taken  advantage  of  their  opportunity  to  intrench  them- 
selves in  Ticonderoga,  which  was  destined  to  become  a  name 
of  awe  for  the  colonists.  At  the  same  tune  that  Braddock 
marched  on  Fort  Duquesne,  Shirley  had  set  out  with  two 
thousand  men  to  capture  the  fort  at  Niagara,  garrisoned 
by  but  thirty  ill-armed  men ;  the  intention  being  to  form 
a  junction  there  with  the  all-conquering  Braddock.  The 
latter's  annihilation  took  all  the  heart  out  of  the  superser- 
viceable  Shirley ;  he  got  no  further  than  Oswego,  where  he 
frittered  the  summer  away,  and  then  retreated  under  a  cloud 
of  pretexts.  He  and  the  other  royal  officials  were  all  this 
while  pleading  for  a  general  fund  to  be  created  by  Parlia- 
ment, or  in  any  other  manner,  so  that  a  fund  there  be;  and 


THE   PLAINS   OF   ABRAHAM  325 

asserting  that  the  frontiers  would  otherwise  be,  and  in  fact 
were,  defenseless.  In  the  face  of  such  tales  the  colonies 
were  of  their  own  motion  providing  all  the  necessary  sup- 
plies for  war,  and  Franklin  had  taken  personal  charge  of 
the  northwest  border.  But  the  English  ministry  saw  in 
these  measures  only  increasing  peril  from  popular  power, 
and  pushed  forward  a  scheme  for  a  military  dictatorship. 
In  May,  1756,  war  was  formally  declared,  and  England 
arbitrarily  forbade  other  nations  to  carry  French  merchan- 
dise in  their  ships.  Abercrombie  was  chosen  general  for 
the  prosecution  of  the  campaign  in  America,  and  arrived 
at  Albany,  after  much  dilatoriness,  in  June.  Bradstreet  re- 
ported that  he  had  put  stores  into  Oswego  for  five  thousand 
men;  and  that  the  place  was  already  threatened  by  the 
enemy.  Still  the  English  delayed.  Montcalm  arrived  at 
Quebec  to  lead  the  French  army,  and  immediately  planned 
the  capture  of  Oswego.  In  August  he  took  an  outlying 
redoubt,  and  the  garrison  of  Oswego  surrendered  just  as  he 
was  about  to  open  fire  upon  it.  Sixteen  hundred  prisoners, 
over  a  hundred  cannon,  stores,  boats  and  money  were  the 
prize;  and  Montcalm  destroyed  the  fort  and  returned  in 
triumph.  Loudoun  and  Abercrombie,  with  an  army  of 
thousands  of  men,  which  could  have  taken  Canada  with 
ease,  thought  only  of  keeping  out  of  Montcalm's  way,  plead- 
ing in  excuse  that  they  feared  to  trust  the  "provincials" — 
who  had  thus  far  done  all  the  fighting  that  had  been  done, 
and  won  all  the  successes.  In  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of 
the  civic  authorities,  the  British  troops  and  officers  were 
billeted  upon  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  Two  more 
frightened  generals  were  never  seen;  and  the  provinces 
were  left  open  to  the  enemy's  attack.  But  the  Americans 
took  the  war  into  their  own  hands.  John  Armstrong  of 
Cumberland  County,  Pennsylvania,  crossed  the  Alleghanies 
in  September  and  in  a  desperate  fight  destroyed  an  Indian 
tribe  that  had  been  massacring  along  the  border,  burned 
their  town  and  blew  up  their  powder.  In  January  of  1767, 


326  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

Stark,  a  daring  ranger,  with  seventy  men,  made  a  dash  on 
Lake  George,  and  engaged  a  party  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty  French.  About  the  same  tune,  at  Philadelphia  and 
Boston  it  was  voted  to  raise  men  for  the  service ;  a  hundred 
thousand  pounds  was  also  voted,  but  the  proprietors  refused 
to  pay  th#ir  quota,  and  represented  in  England  that  the 
Pennsylvanians  were  obstructing  the  measures  for  defense. 
Franklin,  sent  to  England  to  remonstrate,  was  told  that  the 
king  was  the  legislator  of  the  colonies.  All  action  was 
paralyzed  by  the  corruption  and  cowardice  of  the  royal 
officials.  The  pusillanimity  of  Loudoun,  with  his  ten  thou- 
sand men  and  powerful  fleet  in  Nova  Scotia,  has  been 
already  mentioned.  In  July  Montcalm,  with  a  mixed  force 
of  more  than  seven  thousand,  advanced  upon  Fort  William 
Henry.  "Webb,  who  should  have  opposed  him,  retreated, 
leaving  Monro  with  five  hundred  men  to  hold  the  fort.  He 
refused  Montcalm's  summons  to  surrender;  Webb,  who 
might  still  have  saved  him,  refused  to  do  so;  he  fought 
until  his  ammunition  was  gone  and  half  his  guns  burst,  and 
then  surrendered  upon  Montcalm's  promise  of  the  honors  of 
war  and  an  escort  out  of  the  country.  But  the  Indians  had 
got  rum  from  the  English  stores  and  passed  the  night  in 
drunken  revelry ;  in  the  morning  they  set  upon  the  unarmed 
English  as  they  left  the  fort,  and  began  to  plunder  and  tom- 
ahawk them.  Montcalm  and  his  officers  did  their  utmost 
to  stop  the  treacherous  outrage ;  but  thirty  men  were  mur- 
dered. Montcalm  has  been  treated  leniently  by  history ;  he 
was  indeed  a  brilliant  and  heroic  soldier,  and  he  had  the 
crowning  honor  of  dying  bravely  at  Quebec ;  but  he  cannot 
be  held  blameless  in  this  affair.  He  had  taught  the  Indians 
that  he  was  as  one  of  themselves,  had  omitted  no  means  of 
securing  their  amity;  had  danced  and  sung  with  them  and 
smiled  approvingly  on  their  butcherings  and  scalpings ;  and 
he  had  no  right  to  imagine  that  they  would  believe  him  sin- 
cere in  his  promise  to  spare  the  prisoners.  It  was  too  late 
for  hi™  to  cry  "Kill  me,  but  spare  them!"  after  the  mas- 


THE    PLAINS    OF   ABRAHAM  327 

sacre  had  commenced.  It  was  his  duty  to  have  taken  meas- 
ures to  render  such  a  thing  impossible  beforehand.  He  hud 
touched  pitch,  and  was  defiled. 

Disgrace  and  panic  reigned  among  all  the  English  com- 
manders. Webb  whimpered  to  be  allowed  to  fall  back  on 
the  Hudson  with  his  six  thousand  men;  Loudoun  cowered 
in  New  York  with  his  large  army,  and  could  think  of  no 
better  way  of  defending  the  northwest  frontier  than  by 
intrenching  himself  on  Long  Island.  There  was  not  an 
Englishman  in  the  Ohio  or  the  St.  Lawrence  Basins. 
Everywhere  beyond  the  narrow  strip  of  the, colonies  the 
French  were  paramount.  In  Europe  England's  position 
was  almost  as  contemptible.  Such  was  the  result  of  the 
attempt  of  the  aristocracy  to  rule  England.  There  was  only 
one  man  who  could  save  England,  and  he  was  an  old  man, 
poor,  a  commoner,  and  sick  almost  to  death.  But  in  1757 
William  Pitt  was  called  to  the  English  helm,  accepted  the 
responsibility,  and  steered  the  country  from  her  darkest  to 
her  niost  brilliant  hour.  The  campaigns  which  drove  the 
soldiers  of  Louis  XV.  out  of  America  were  the  first  chapter 
of  the  movement  which  ended  in  the  expulsion  of  the  British 
from  the  territory  of  the  United  States.  Catholicism  and 
Protestantism  were  arrayed  against  each  other  for  the  last 
time.  Pitt  was  the  man  of  the  people;  his  ambition,  though 
generous,  was  as  great  as  his  abilities;  the  colonies  knew 
him  as  their  friend.  "I  can  save  this  country,  and  nobody 
else  can,"  he  said;  and  bent  his  final  energies  to  making 
England  the  foremost  nation  in  the  world,  and  the  most 
respected.  The  faith  of  Rome  allied  France  with  Austria; 
and  Prussia,  with  Frederic  the  Great,  standing  as  the  sole 
bulwark  of  Protestantism  on  the  Continent,  was  inevitably 
drawn  toward  England. 

With  one  movement  of  his  all-powerful  hand,  Pitt  re- 
versed the  oppressive  and  suicidal  policy  of  the  colonial 
administration.  Loudoun  was  recalled;  his  excuses  were 
vain.  Amherst  and  Wolfe  were  sent  out.  The  colonies 


328  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES 

were  told  that  no  compulsion  should  be  put  upon  them; 
they  were  expected  to  levy,  clothe  and  pay  their  men,  but 
the  government  would  repay  their  outlay.  Instantly  they 
responded,  and  their  contributions  exceeded  all  anticipation. 
Massachusetts  taxed  herself  thirteen  and  fourpence  in  the 
pound.  Provincial  officers  not  above  colonel  ranked  with 
the  British,  and  a  new  spirit  animated  all.  On  the  other 
hand  Canada  suffered  from  famine,  and  Montcalm  foresaw 
eventual  defeat.  Amherst  and  Wolfe,  with  ten  thousand 
men,  captured  Louisburg  and  destroyed  the  fortifications. 
At  the  same  time,  a  great  army  was  collected  against  Ticon- 
deroga.  Nine  thousand  provincials,  with  Stark,  Israel  Put- 
nam, and  six  hundred  New  England  rangers,  camped  side 
by  side  with  over  six  thousand  troops  of  the  British  regulars 
under  Abercrombie  and  Lord  Howe.  The  French  under 
Montcalm  had  erected  Fort  Carillon  on  the  outlet  from 
Lake  George  to  Champlain,  approachable  only  from  the 
northwest.  It  was  here  that  he  planned  his  defense.  The 
English  disembarked  on  the  west  side  of  the  lake,  protected 
by  Point  Howe.  In  marching  round  the  bend  they  came 
upon  a  French  party  of  three  hundred  and  defeated  them, 
Howe  falling  in  the  first  attack.  Montcalm  was  behind 
intrench ments  with  thirty-six  hundred  men;  Abercrombie 
rashly  gave  orders  to  carry  the  works  by  storm  without 
waiting  for  cannon,  but  was  careful  to  remain  far  in  the 
rear  during  the  action.  The  attack  was  most  gallantly  and 
persistently  delivered;  nearly  two  thousand  men,  mostly 
regulars,  were  killed ;  and  at  the  end  of  the  murderous  day, 
Montcalm  remained  master  of  the  field.  Abercrombie  still 
had  four  times  as  many  men  as  Montcalm,  and  with  his 
artillery  could  easily  have  carried  the  works  and  captured 
Ticonderoga;  but  he  was  by  this  time  "distilled  almost  to  a 
jelly  by  the  act  of  fear,"  and  fled  headlong  at  once.  Mont- 
calm had  not  yet  met  his  match. 

Bradstreet,  however,  with  seven  hundred  Massachusetts 
men  and  eleven  hundred  New  Yorkers,  crossed  Lake  Onta- 


THE    PLAINS    OF   ABRAHAM  329 

rio  and  took  Fort  Frontenac,  the  garrison  fleeing  at  their 
approach.  Amherst,  on  hearing  of  Abercrombie's  coward- 
ice, embarked  for  Boston  with  over  four  thousand  men, 
marched  thence  to  Albany  and  on  to  the  camp;  Abercrom- 
bie  was  sent  to  England,  and  Amherst  took  his  place  as 
chief.  The  capture  of  Fort  Duquesne  was  the  first  thing 
planned.  Over  forty-five  hundred  men  were  raised  in  South 
Carolina,  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia;  Joseph  Forbes  com- 
manded them  as  brigadier-general ;  Washington  led  the  Vir- 
ginians; John  Armstrong  and  the  boy,  Anthony  "Wayne, 
were  with  the  Pennsylvanians.  Washington,  who  had  clad 
part  of  his  men  in  Indian  deerskins,  wanted  to  follow  Brad- 
dock's  line  of  march ;  but  Forbes,  who  had  not  long  to 
live,  though  his  brain  remained  clear,  preferred  to  build 
a  road  by  which  ready  communication  with  Philadelphia 
could  be  kept  up.  Washington  got  news  that  the  Fort  had 
but  eight  hundred  defenders,  and  a  strong  reconnaissance 
was  sent  forward,  without  his  knowledge,  under  Major 
Grant,  who,  thinking  he  had  the  French  at  advantage, 
exposed  himself  and  was  defeated  with  a  loss  of  three  hun- 
dred. The  remaining  five  hundred  reached  camp  in  good 
order,  thanks  to  the  discipline  which  had  been  given  them 
by  Washington.  Forbes  had  decided  to  advance  no  further 
that  season — it  was  then  November;  but  Washington  had 
information  which  caused  him  to  gain  permission  to  advance 
with  twenty-five  hundred  provincials,  and  he  occupied  in- 
trenchments  near  Duquesne.  Nine  days  later  the  rest  of 
the  army  arrived;  and  the  garrison  of  the  Fort  set  fire  to 
it  at  night  and  fled.  The  place  was  entered  by  the  troops, 
Armstrong  raised  the  British  flag,  and  at  Forbes'  suggestion 
it  was  rechristened  Pittsburgh.  And  there,  above  the  con- 
fluence of  the  two  rivers,  the  city  named  after  the  Great 
Commoner  stands  to-day.  A  vast  and  fertile  country  was 
thenceforward  opened  to  the  east.  After  burying  the  bleach- 
ing bones  of  the  men  killed  under  Braddock,  a  garrison  was 
left  on  the  spot,  and  the  rest  of  the  army  returned. 


330  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

"Washington,  who  had  seen  five  years'  arduous  service, 
resigned  his  commission,  and  after  receiving  cordial  honors 
from  his  fellow  officers  and  the  Virginia  legislature,  married 
the  widow,  Martha  Custis,  and  settled  down  as  a  planter  in 
Mount  Vernon.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the  Virginia  House 
of  Burgesses  arid  to  the  Continental  Congresses  of  1774  and 
1775;  but  it  was  not  until  the  latter  year  that  he  reappeared 
as  a  soldier,  accepting  the  command  of  the  Continental 
forces  on  the  15th  of  June,  not  against  the  French,  but 
against  the  English. 

In  1759,  the  genius  and  spirit  of  Pitt  began  to  be  fully 
felt.  The  English  were  triumphant  in  Europe,  and  a  com- 
prehensive plan  for  the  conquest  of  Canada  was  intrusted 
for  the  first  time  to  men  capable  of  carrying  it  out.  Thou- 
sands of  men  were  enlisted  and  paid  for  by  the  colonies 
north  of  Maryland.  Stanwix,  Amherst,  Prideaux  and 
Wolfe  were  the  chiefs  in  command.  Fifty  thousand  En- 
glish and  provincial  troops  were  opposed  by  not  more  than 
an  eighth  as  many  half -starved  Frenchmen  and  Canadians. 
Montcalm  had  no  illusions;  he  told  the  French  Minister  of 
War  that,  barring  extraordinary  accidents,  Canada's  hour 
had  come;  but  he  "was  resolved  to  find  his  grave  under  the 
ruins  of  the  colony."  And  young  General  Wolfe  had  said, 
on  being  given  the  department  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  "I  feel 
called  upon  to  justify  the  notice  taken  of  me  by  such  exer- 
tions and  exposure  of  myself  as  will  probably  lead  to  my 
fall. ' '  The  premonitions  of  both  these  valiant  soldiers  were 
fulfilled.  Wolfe  was  at  this  time  thirty-two  years  of  age, 
and  had  spent  "half  his  life  in  the  army.  The  Marquis  de 
Montcalm  was  forty-seven  when  he  fell  on  the  Plains  of 
Abraham.  Neither  general  had  been  defeated  up  to  the 
moment  they  faced  each  other;  neither  could  succumb  to 
any  legs  worthy  adversary. 

But  the  first  objective  point  was  not  Quebec,  but  Fort 
Niagara,  which,  standing  between  Erie  and  Ontario,  com- 
manded the  fur  trade  of  the  country  to  the  west.  Prideaux, 


THE   PLAINS   OF   ABRAHAM  331 

with  an  adequate  force  of  English,  Americans  and  Indians, 
invested  the  place  in  July,  D'Aubry,  the  French  com- 
mander, bringing  up  twelve  hundred  men  to  relieve  it. 
Just  before  the  action  Prideaux  was  killed  by  the  bursting 
of  a  mountain  howitzer,  but  Sir  William  Johnson  was  at 
hand  to  take  his  place.  On  the  24th  the  battle  took  place ; 
the  French  were  flanked  by  the  English  Indians,  and 
charged  by  the  English;  they  broke  and  fled,  and  the 
Fort  surrendered  next  day.  Stanwix  had  meanwhile  taken 
possession  of  all  the  French  posts  between  Pittsburgh  and 
Erie.  The  English  had  got  their  enemy  on  the  run  all 
along  the  line.  Gage  was  the  only  English  officer  to  dis- 
grace himself  in  this  campaign ;  he  squirmed  out  of  compli- 
ance with  Amherst's  order  to  occupy  the  passes  of  Ogdens- 
burgh.  Amherst,  with  artillery  and  eleven  thousand  men, 
advanced  on  the  hitherto  invincible  Ticonderoga.  The 
French  knew  they  were  beaten,  and  therefore,  instead 
of  fighting,  abandoned  the  famous  stronghold  and  Crown 
Point,  and  retreated  down  to  Isle  aux  Nois,  whither  Am- 
herst should  have  followed  them.  Instead  of  doing  so 
he  took  to  building  and  repairing  fortifications — the  last 
infirmity  of  military  minds  of  a  certain  order — and  finally 
went  into  winter  quarters  with  nothing  further  done.  Am- 
herst, at  the  end  of  the  war,  received  the  routine  rewards  of 
a  well-meaning  and  not  defeated  commander-in-chief ;  but 
it  was  Wolfe  who  won  immortality. 

He  collected  his  force  of  eight  thousand  men,  including 
two  battalions  of  "Royal  Americans,"  at  Louisburg;  among 
his  ship  captains  was  Cook  the  explorer ;  Lieutenant-colonel 
Howe  commanded  a  body  of  light  infantr}'.  Before  the  end 
of  June  the  army  stepped  ashore  on  the  island  that  fills  the 
channel  of  the  St.  Lawrence  below  Quebec,  called  the  Isle 
of  Orleans.  Montcalm's  camp  was  between  them  and  the 
tall  acclivity  on  which  stood  the  famous  fortress,  which  had 
defied  capture  for  a  hundred  and  thirty  years.  The  French 
outnumbered  the  English,  but  neither  the  physical  condition 


332  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

nor  the  morale  of  their  troops  was  good.  That  beetling  cliff 
was  the  ally  on  which  Montcalm  most  depended.  All  the 
landing-places  up  stream  for  nine  miles  had  been  fortified : 
the  small  river  St.  Charles  covered  with  its  sedgy  marshes 
the  approach  on  the  north  and  east,  while  on  the  west  an- 
other stream,  the  Montmorenci,  rising  nearly  at  the  same 
place  as  the  St.  Charles,  falls  in  cataracts  into  the  St.  Law- 
rence nine  miles  above  the  citadel.  All  these  natural  fea- 
tures had  been  improved  by  military  art.  High  up,  north 
and  west  of  the  city,  spread  the  broad  Plains  of  Abraham. 

"Wolfe's  fleet  commanded  the  river  and  the  south  shore. 
Point  Levi,  on  this  shore,  opposite  Quebec,  was  fortified  by 
the  English,  and  siege  guns  were  mounted  there,  the  chan- 
nel being  but  a  mile  wide ;  the  lower  town  could  be  reached 
by  the  red-hot  balls,  but  not  the  lofty  citadel.  After  per- 
sonally examining  the  region  during  the  greater  part  of 
July,  Wolfe  decided  on  a  double  attack;  one  party  to  ford 
the  Montmorenci,  which  was  practicable  at  a  certain  hour 
of  the  tide,  and  the  other  to  cross  over  in  boats  from  Point 
Levi.  But  the  boats  grounded  on  some  rocks  in  the  chan- 
nel ;  and  Wolfe  was  repulsed  at  the  Montmorenci.  Four 
hundred  men  were  lost.  An  expedition  was  now  sent  up 
stream  to  open  communication  with  Amherst;  but  though 
it  was  learned  that  Niagara,  Crown  Point  and  Ticonderoga 
had  fallen,  Amherst  did  not  appear.  Wolfe  must  do  his 
work  alone;  the  entire  population  of  the  country  was 
against  him,  and  the  strongest  natural  fortification  in  the 
world.  His  eager  anxiety  threw  him  into  a  fever.  "My 
constitution  is  entirely  ruined,  without  thv  consolation  of 
having  done  any  considerable  servico  to  the  state,  and  with- 
out any  prospect  of  it,"  was  wht,t  he  wrote  to  the  English 
government.  Four  days  afterward  he  was  dying  victorious 
on  the  Plains  of  Abraham. 

The  early  Canadian  winter  would  soon  be  at  hand.  The 
impossible  must  be  done,  and  at  once.  Wolfe,  after  several 
desperate  proposals  of  his  had  been  rejected  by  the  council 


THE   PLAINS   OF   ABRAHAM  333 

of  war,  made  a  feint  in  force  up  the  river,  in  the  hope  of 
getting  Montcalm  where  he  could  fight  him.  He  scru- 
tinized the  precipitous  north  shore  as  with  a  magnifying 
glass.  At  last,  on  the  llth  of  September,  the  hope  that  had 
so  long  been  burning  within  him  was  gratified.  But  what  a 
hope !  A  headlong  goat-track  cleft  its  zigzag  way  up  the 
awful  steep,  and  emerged  at  last  upon  the  dizzy  and  breath- 
less height  above.  Two  men  could  scarce  climb  abreast  in 
it;  and  even  this  was  defended  by  fortifications,  and  at  the 
summit,  against  the  sky,  tents  could  be  seen.  Yet  this  was 
the  only  way  to  victory :  only  by  this  heartbreaking  path 
could  England  drive  France  from  the  western  continent, 
and  give  a  mighty  nation  to  the  world.  Wolfe  saw,  and 
was  content ;  where  one  man  could  go,  thousands  might  fol- 
low. And  he  perceived  that  the  very  difficulty  of  the  enter- 
prise was  the  best  assurance  of  its  success.  The  place  was 
defended  indeed,  but  not  strongly.  Montcalm  knew  what 
daring  could  accomplish,  but  even  he  had  not  dreamed  of 
daring  such  as  this.  Wolfe,  with  a  great  soul  kindled  into 
flame  by  the  resolve  to  achieve  a  feat  almost  beyond  mortal 
limitations,  dared  it,  and  prevailed. 

Till  the  hour  of  action,  he  kept  his  troops  far  up  the 
stream.  By  the  13th,  all  preparations  were  made.  Night 
came  on,  calm,  like  the  heart  of  the  hero  who  knows  that 
the  culminating  moment  of  his  destiny  has  arrived.  At 
such  a  crisis,  the  mortal  part  of  the  man  is  transfigured  by 
the  towering  spirit,  and  his  eyes  pierce  through  the  veils  of 
things.  His  life  lies  beneath  him,  and  he  contemplates  its 
vicissitudes  with  the  high  tranquillity  of  an  immortal  free- 
dom. What  is  death  to  him  who  has  already  triumphed 
over  the  fetters  of  the  flesh,  and  tasted  the  drink  of  im- 
mortality? He  is  the  trustee  of  the  purpose  of  God;  and 
the  guerdon  his  deed  deserves  can  be  nothing  less  noble 
than  to  die. 

It  was  at  one  in  the  morning  that  the  adventure  was 
begun.  Silently  the  boats  moved  down  the  stream,  the  dark 


334  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES 

ships  following  in  silence.  Thousands  of  brave  hearts  beat 
with  heroic  resolve  beneath  the  eternal  stars.  The  shad- 
owy cove  was  gained ;  Wolfe's  foot  has  touched  the  shore ; 
as  the  armed  figures  follow  and  gather  at  the  foot  of  the 
ascent,  no  words  are  spoken,  but  what  an  eloquence  in  those 
faces!  Upward  they  climb,  afire  with  zeal;  Howe  has 
won  a  battery;  upward!  the  picket  on  the  height,  too  late 
aroused  from  sleep  by  the  stern  miracle,  is  overpowered. 
With  panting  lungs  man  after  man  tops  the  ascent  and  sees 
the  darkling  plain  and  forms  in  line  with  his  comrades, 
while  still  the  stream  winds  up  endlessly  from  the  depths 
below.  The  earth  is  giving  birth  to  an  army.  Coiling  up- 
ward, deploying,  ranging  out,  rank  after  rank  they  are 
extended  along  the  front  of  the  forest,  with  Quebec  before 
them.  No  drum  has  beat ;  no  bugle  has  spoken ;  but  Wolfe 
is  there,  his  spirit  is  in  five  thousand  breasts,  and  there 
needs  no  trumpet  for  the  battle. 

As  the  last  of  the  army  formed  upon  the  rugged  fisld, 
dawn  broke  upon  the  east,  and  soon  the  early  sunshine 
sparkled  on  their  weapons  and  glowed  along  the  ranks  of 
English  red.  Meanwhile  Montcalm  had  been  apprised;  his 
first  instinct  of  incredulity  had  been  swept  away  by  the  in- 
evitable truth,  and  he  manned  himself  for  the  struggle. 
Often  had  he  conquered  against  odds;  but  now  his  spirit 
must  bow  before  a  spirit  stronger  than  his,  as  Antony's 
before  Augustus.  And  what  had  he  to  oppose  against  the 
seasoned  veterans  of  the  English  army,  thrice  armed  in 
the  consciousness  of  their  unparalleled  achievement? — Five 
weak  and  astounded  battalions,  and  a  horde  of  inchoate 
peasants.  But  Montcalm  did  not  falter;  by  ten  he  had 
taken  up  his  position,  and  by  eleven,  after  some  ineffectual 
cannonading,  to  allow  time  for  the  arrival  of  re-enforcements 
which  came  not,  he  led  the  aharge.  The  attack  was  disor- 
dered by  the  uneven  ground,  the  fences  and  the  ravines; 
and  it  was  broken  by  the  granite  front  of  the  English  (three- 
fourths  of  them  Americans)  and  their  long-reserved  and 


THE   PLAINS   OF   ABRAHAM  335 

withering  fire.  The  undisciplined  Canadians  flinched  from 
that  certain  death ;  and  Wolfe,  advancing  on  them  with  his 
grenadiers,  saw  them  melt  away  before  the  cold  steel  could 
reach  them.  The  two  leaders  faced  each  other,  both  equally 
undaunted  and  alert ;  it  was  like  a  duel  between  them ;  no 
opening  was  missed,  no  chance  neglected.  The  smoke  hung 
in  the  still  air  of  morning;  the  long  lines  of  men  swayed 
and  undulated  beneath  it  obscurely,  and  the  roar  of  mus- 
ketry dinned  terribly  in  the  ear,  here  slackening  for  a 
moment,  there  breaking  forth  in  volleying  thunders;  and 
men  were  dropping  everywhere ;  there  were  shoutings  from 
the  captains,  the  fierce  crash  of  cheers,  yells  of  triumph  or 
agony,  and  the  faint  groans  of  the  wounded  unto  death. 
Wolfe  was  hit,  but  he  did  not  heed  it;  Montcalm  has  re- 
ceived a  musket  ball,  but  he  cannot  yet  die.  The  English 
battle  does  not  yield;  it  advances,  the  light  of  victory  is 
upon  it.  Backward  stagger  the  French;  Montcalm  strives 
to  check  the  fatal  movement,  but  the  flying  death  has  torn 
its  way  through  his  body,  and  he  can  no  more.  Wolfe, 
even  as  the  day  was  won,  got  his  death  wound  in  the  breast, 
but  "Support  me — don't  let  my  brave  fellows  see  me  drop," 
he  gasped  out.  His  thoughts  were  with  his  army ;  let  the 
retreat  of  the  enemy  be  cut  off;  and  he  died  with  a  happy 
will,  and  with  God's  name  on  his  lips.  Montcalm  lingered, 
suggesting  means  by  which  to  retrieve  the  day;  but  the 
power  of  France  died  with  him.  Quebec  was  lost  and 
won ;  and  human  history  was  turned  into  a  new  channel, 
and  no  longer  flowing  through  the  caverns  of  mediaeval 
error,  rolled  its  current  toward  the  sunlight  of  liberty  and 
progress.  "The  more  a  man  is  versed  in  business,  the  more 
he  finds  the  hand  of  Providence  everywhere,"  was  the  reply 
of  William  Pitt,  when  Parliament  congratulated  him  on 
the  victory.  He  had  wrought  his  plans  with  wisdom  and 
zeal;  but  "except  the  Lord  build  the  city,  they  labor  in 
vain  who  build  it."  There  have  been  great  statesmen 
and  brave  soldiers,  before  Pitt  and  Wolfe,  and  since;  but 


336  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

there  could   be  only  one  fall  of  Quebec,  with  all  which 
that  implied. 

The  following  spring  and  glimmer  were  overshadowed 
by  an  unrighteous  war  against  the  Cherokees,  precipitated 
by  the  royalist  governor  of  Virginia,  Lyttleton.  An  at- 
tempt by  the  French  under  Levi  to  recapture  Quebec  failed, 
in  spite  of  the  folly  of  the  English  commander,  Murray ;  Pitt 
had  foreseen  the  effort,  and  destroyed  it  with  an  English 
fleet.  Amherst,  in  his  own  tortoise-like  way,  advanced  and 
took  possession  of  Montreal;  and  by  permission  of  the 
Indian,  Pontiac,  who  regarded  himself  as  lord  of  the  coun- 
try, the  English  flag  was  carried  to  the  outposts.  Canada 
had  surrendered;  in  the  terms  imposed,  property  and  the 
religious  faith  of  the  people  were  respected;  but  nothing  was 
promised  them  in  the  way  of  civil  liberty.  In  discussing 
the  European  peace  that  was  now  looked  for,  question  was 
raised  whether  to  restore  Canada,  or  the  West  Indian  island 
of  Guadalpupe,  to  France.  Some,  who  feared  that  the  re- 
tention of  Canada  would  too  much  incline  the  colonies  to 
independence,  favored  its  return.  But  Franklin  said  that 
Canada  would  be  a  source  of  strength  to  England.  The 
expense  of  defending  that  vast  frontier  would  be  saved ;  the 
rapidly  increasing  population  would  absorb  English  manu- 
factures without  limit,  and  their  necessary  devotion  to  farm- 
ing would  diminish  their  competition  as  manufacturers.  He 
pointed  out  that  their  differences  in  governments  and  mu- 
tual jealousies  made  their  united  action  against  England 
unthinkable,  "unless  you  grossly  abuse  them." — "Very 
true:  that,  I  see,  will  happen,"  returned  the  English  law- 
yer Pratt,  afterward  Lord  Camden,  the  attorney-general. 
But  Pitt  would  not  listen  to  Canada's  being  given  up;  he 
was  for  England,  not  for  any  English  clique.  On  the  other 
hand,  one  of  those  cliques  was  preparing  to  carry  out  the 
long  meditated  taxation  of  the  colonies;  and  the  sudden 
death  of  George  II.,  bringing  his  son  to  the  throne,  favored 
their  purpose;  for  the  Third  George  had  character  and 


THE    PLAINS   OF   ABRAHAM 


337 


energy,  and  not  a  little  intelligence  for  a  king;  and  he 
was  soon  seen  to  intend  the  re-establishment  of  the  royal 
prerogative  in  all  its  integrity.  As  a  preliminary  step  to 
this  end,  he  accepted  Pitt's  resignation  in  October,  1761. 
Much  to  the  displeasure  of  Massachusetts,  Thomas 
Hutchinson,  already  Judge  of  Probate,  was  by  Governor 
Bernard  appointed  to  the  Chief  Justiceship  of  the  colony; 
the  royalist  direction  of  his  sympathies  was  known.  In 
February,  1761,  he  heard  argument  in  court  as  to  whether 
revenue  officers  had  power  to  call  in  executive  assistance  to 
enforce  the  acts  of  trade.  The  crown  lawyer  argued  that  to 
refuse  it  was  to  deny  the  sovereignty  of  the  English  Parlia- 
ment in  the  colonies.  Then  James  Otis  arose,  and  made  a 
protest  which  tingled  through  the  whole  colony,  and  was 
the  first  direct  blow  aimed  against  English  domination. 
Power  such  as  was  asked  for,  he  said,  had  already  cost 
one  king  of  England  his  head  and  another  his  throne. 
Writs  of  assistance  were  open  to  intolerable  abuse;  were 
the  instrument  of  arbitrary  power  and  destructive  of  the 
fundamental  principles  of  law.  Reason  and  the  constitution 
were  against  them.  "No  act  of  Parliament  can  establish 
such  a  writ :  an  act  of  parliament  against  the  constitution  is 
void!"  These  words  were  the  seed  of  revolution.  Hutchin- 
son was  frightened,  but  succeeded  in  persuading  his  col- 
leagues to  postpone  decision  until  he  had  written  to  Eng- 
land. The  English  instruction  was  to  enforce  the  law,  and 
the  judges  acted  accordingly;  but  the  people  replied  by 
electing  Otis  to  the  assembly;  and  Hutchinson  was  more 
distrusted  than  ever.  At  the  same  time,  in  Virginia,  Rich- 
ard Henry  Lee  denounced  the  slave  trade;  the  legislature 
indorsed  his  plea,  but  England  denied  it.  South  Carolina 
was  alienated  by  the  same  decree,  and  also  by  an  unpopular 
war  against  the  Cherokees.  In  New  York,  the  appointment 
of  a  judge  "during  the  king's  pleasure''  roused  the  assem- 
bly ;  but  the  result  of  their  remonstrance  was  that  all  colo- 
nial governors  were  instructed  from  TCngbtru^  to  grant  no 
U.S.— 15  VOL.  I. 


338  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

judicial  commissions  but  during  the  king's  pleasure.  This 
was  to  make  the  Bench  the  instrument  of  the  Prerogative. 
A  judge  acted  on  questions  of  property,  without  a  jury,  on 
information  furnished  by  crown  officers,  and  derived  emolu- 
ments from  his  own  award  of  forfeitures;  and  the  governor 
would  favor  large  seizures  because  he  got  one-third  of  the 
spoils.  All  the  assemblies  could  do,  for  the  present,  was  to 
reduce  salaries ;  but  that  did  not  make  the  offenders  any  less 
avaricious.  Moreover,  the  king  began  the  practice  of  pay- 
ing them  in  spite  of  the  assemblies,  and  reproved  the  latter 
for  "not  being  animated  by  a  sense  of  their  duty  to  their 
king  and  country." 

James  Otis  continued  to  be  the  voice  of  the  colonies. 
"Kings  were  made  for  the  good  of  the  people,  not  the  peo- 
ple for  them.  By  the  laws  of  God  and  nature,  government 
must  not  raise  taxes  on  the  property  of  the  people  without 
the  consent  of  the  people.  To  tax  without  the  assembly's 
consent  was  the  same  in  principle  as  for  the  king  and  the 
House  of  Lords  to  usurp  legislative  authority  in  England." 
For  the  utterance  of  these  sentiments  he  was  honored  by 
the  hearty  support  of  the  people,  and  still  more  by  the  de- 
nunciations of  men  of  the  Hutchinson  sort.  The  ministers 
were  not  silent  on  the  popular  side.  "May  Heaven  blast 
the  designs,  though  not  the  soul,"  said  May  hew,  with  Chris- 
tian discrimination,  "of  whoever  he  be  among  us  who  shall 
have  the  hardiness  to  attack  the  people's  rights!"  King 
George's  answer,  as  soon  as  he  had  concluded  the  peace 
with  France  and  Spain,  in  1763,  was  to  take  measures  to 
terrorize  the  colonists  by  sending  out  an  army  of  twenty 
battalions  to  be  kept  permanently  in  America,  the  expenses 
of  which  the  colonists  were  to  pay.  But  by  enforcing  the 
acts  of  trade,  England  had  now  made  herself  the  enemy  of 
the  whole  civilized  world,  and  the  American  colonies  would 
not  be  without  allies  in  the  struggle  that  was  drawing  near. 

While  these  matters  were  in  agitation  among  the  white 
people,  the  Indians  in  the  north  were  discovering  grievances 


THE   PLAINS   OF   ABRAHAM  359 

of  their  own.  Pontiac,  an  Ottawa  chief,  and  by  his  persona] 
abilities  the  natural  leader  of  many  tribes,  was  the  instigator 
and  center  of  the  revolt.  The  English  masters  of  Canada 
had  showed  themselves  less  congenial  to  the  red  men  than 
the  French  had  done ;  they  could  not  understand  that  sav- 
ages had  any  rights  which  they  were  bound  to  respect; 
while  Pontiac  conceived  that  no  white  man  could  live  in  the 
wilderness  without  his  permission.  Upon  this  issue,  trouble 
was  inevitable;  and  Pontiac  planned  a  general  movement  of 
all  the  Indians  in  the  north  against  the  colonists.  The  suc- 
cess of  the  scheme  could  of  course  be  only  momentary ;  that 
it  attained  the  dignity  of  a  "war"  was  due  to  the  influence 
and  energy  of  the  Indian  general.  His  design  was  of  broad 
scope,  embracing  a  simultaneous  attack  on  all  the  English 
frontier  forts ;  a  wide  coalition  of  tribes  was  effected ;  and 
though  their  tactics  were  not  essentially  different  from  those 
heretofore  employed  by  savages,  yet  their  possession  of 
arms,  their  skill  in  their  use,  and  their  numbers,  made  their 
onslaughts  formidable.  On  several  occasions  they  effected 
their  entry  into  the  forts  by  stratagem :  a  tale  of  misery  told 
by  a  squaw ;  a  ball  in  a  game  struck  toward  the  door  of  the 
stronghold;  professedly  amicable  conferences  suddenly  be- 
coming massacres ;  such  were  the  naive  yet  successful  ruses 
employed.  Many  lives  were  lost,  and  the  border  lands  were 
laid  waste  and  panicstricken ;  but  it  was  impossible  for  the 
Indians  to  hold  together,  and  their  victories  hastened  their 
undoing.  No  general  engagement,  of  course,  was  fought, 
but  Pontiac's  authority  gradually  abated,  and  he  was  finally 
compelled  to  go  into  retirement.  His  Conspiracy  has  its 
picturesque  side,  but  it  is  not  organically  related  to  our  his- 
tory; it  was  merely  a  fresh  expression  of  the  familiar  fact 
that  there  could  be  no  sincere  friendship  between  the  white 
and  the  red.  The  former  could  live  with  the  latter  if  they 
would  live  like  them;  but  no  attempt  to  reverse  the  case 
could  succeed.  The  solemnity  with  which  the  practice  of 
signing  treaties  of  peace  with  the  Indians  has  uniformly 


340  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

been  kept  up  is  one  of  the  curious  features  of  our  colonial 
annals,  and  indeed  of  later  times.  Indians  will  keep  the 
peace  without  treaties,  if  they  are  kindly  used  and  given 
liberty  to  do  as  they  please ;  but  no  engagement  is  binding 
on  them  after  they  deem  themselves  wronged.  They  are 
pleased  by  the  formalities,  the  speeches,  and  the  gifts  that 
accompany  such  conferences;  they  like  to  exchange  compli- 
ments, and  to  play  with  belts  of  wampum ;  and  it  is  possible 
that  when  they  make  their  promises,  they  think  they  will 
keep  them.  They  can  understand  the  advantages  of  trade, 
and  will  make  some  sacrifice  of  their  pride  or  convenience 
to  secure  them.  But  the  mind  is  never  dominant  in  them ; 
the  tides  of  passion  flood  it,  and  their  wild  nature  carries 
them  away.  It  may  be  surmised  that  we  should  have  had 
fewer  Indian  troubles,  had  we  never  entered  into  any  treaty 
with  them.  But  thousands  of  treaties  have  been  made,  and 
broken,  sometimes  by  one  side,  sometimes  by  the  other,  but 
always  by  one  of  the  two.  And  then,  punishments  must  be 
administered ;  but  if  punishment  is  for  improvement,  it  has 
been  as  ineffective  as  the  treaties.  The  only  rational  thing 
to  do  with  an  Indian  is  to  kill  him ;  and  yet  it  may  fairly  be 
doubted  whether  complete  moral  justification  could  be  shown 
for  the  killing  of  any  Indian  since  Columbus  landed  at  San 
Salvador. — As  for  Pontiac,  a  keg  of  liquor  was  inducement 
sufficient  to  one  of  his  own  race  to  murder  him,  five  years 
after  the  failure  of  his  revolt. 

Toward  the  end  of  September,  Jenkinson,  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  in  England,  presented  the  draft  for  an  Ameri- 
can stamp-tax — the  true  authorship  of  which  was  never 
disclosed.  This  tax  was  the  result  of  the  argument  of  ex- 
clusion applied  to  the  problem,  How  to  raise  a  permanent 
and  sufficient  revenue  from  the  colonies.  Foreign  and  in- 
ternal commerce  taxes  would  not  serve,  because  such  com- 
merce was  forbidden  by  the  Navigation  Acts.  A  poll-tax 
would  be  inequitable  to  the  slaveholders.  Land-taxes  could 
not  be  collected.  Exchequer-bills  were  against  an  act  of 


THE   STAMP   ACT  341 

Parliament  Nothing  but  a  stamp-tax  remained,  and  all 
persons  concerned  were  in  favor  of  it,  the  colonists  only 
excepted.  Their  opinion  was  that  taxation  without  repre- 
sentation was  an  iniquity.  But  they  did  not  perhaps  con- 
sider that  England  owed  a  debt  of  seven  hundred  million 
dollars  which  must  be  provided  for  somehow;  and  that  the 
interests  of  the  empire  demanded,  in  the  opinion  of  those 
who  were  at  its  head,  that  the  colonies  be  ruled  with  a 
stronger  hand  than  heretofore.  George  Qrenville  accepted 
the  responsibility  of  the  act. 

The  king  gave  his  consent  to  the  employment  of  the 
entire  official  force  of  the  colonies  to  prevent  infringements 
of  the  Navigation  Acts,  and  the  army  and  navy  were  to 
assist  them.  There  were  large  emoluments  for  seizures, 
and  the  right  of  search  was  unrestricted,  afloat  or  ashore. 
In  order  to  diminish  the  danger  of  union  between  the  colo- 
nies, a  new  distribution,  or  alteration  of  boundaries,  was 
adopted,  with  a  view  to  increasing  their  number.  But  the 
country  between  the  Alleghanies  and  the  Mississippi  was  to 
be  closed  to  colonization,  lest  it  should  prove  impossible  to 
control  settlers  at  such  a  distance.  It  proved,  of  course, 
still  less  possible  to  prevent  emigration  thither.  But  all 
seemed  going  well,  and  the  Grenville  ministry  was  so  firmly 
established  that  nothing  seemed  able  to  shake  it.  The  fact 
that  a  young  Virginia  lawyer,  Patrick  Henry  by  name,  had 
said  in  the  course  of  an  argument  against  the  claim  of  a 
clergyman  for  the  value  of  some  tobacco,  that  a  king  who 
annuls  salutary  laws  is  a  tyrant,  and  forfeits  all  right  to 
obedience;  and  that  if  ministers  fail  to  fulfill  the  uses  for 
which  they  were  ordained,  the  community  may  justly  strip 
them  of  their  appointments — this  circumstance  probably  did 
not  come  to  the  ears  of  the  British  ministry ;  but  it  had  its 
effect  in  Virginia.  Grenville,  however,  was  induced  by  the 
appeals  of  some  influential  Americans  in  London  to  postpone 
his  tax  for  a  year,  so  that  the  assemblies  might  have  an 
opportunity  to  consent  to  it.  By  way  of  tempting  them  to 


342  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES 

do  this,  he  sought  for  special  inducements ;  he  revived  the 
hemp  and  flax  bounties;  he  permitted  rice  to  be  carried 
south  of  Carolina  and  Georgia  on  payment  of  half  subsidy ; 
and  he  removed  the  restrictions  on  the  New  England  whale 
fishery.  He  then  informed  Parliament  of  his  purpose  of 
applying  the  stamp-tax  to  America,  and  asked  if  any  mem- 
ber wished  to  question  the  right  of  Parliament  to  impose 
such  a  tax.  In  a  full  house,  not  a  single  person  rose  to 
object.  The  king  gave  it  his  "hearty"  approval.  It  only 
remained  for  America  humbly  and  gratefully  to  accept  it. 

First  came  comments.  "If  taxes  are  laid  upon  us  in  any 
shape,  without  our  having  a  legal  representation  where  they 
are  laid,  are  we  not  reduced  from  the  character  of  free 
subjects  to  the  miserable  state  of  tributary  slaves?"  asked 
Samuel  Adams  of  Boston.  "These  duties  are  only  the  be- 
ginning of  evils,"  said  Livingston  of  New  York.  "Acts  of 
Parliament  against  natural  equity  are  void, ' '  Otis  affirmed ; 
and  in  a  lucid  and  cogent  analysis  of  the  principles  and 
ends  of  government  he  pointed  out  that  the  best  good  of  the 
people  could  be  secured  only  by  a  supreme  legislative  and 
executive  ultimately  in  the  people ;  but  a  universal  congress 
being  impracticable,  representation  was  substituted:  "but  to 
bring  the  powers  of  all  into  the  hands  of  one  or  some  few, 
and  to  make  them  hereditary,  is  the  interested  work  of  the 
weak  and  wicked.  Nothing  but  life  and  liberty  are  actually 
hereditable.  .  .  .  British  colonists  do  not  hold  their  liberties 
or  their  lands  by  so  slippery  a  tenure  as  the  will  of  princes ; 
the  colonists  are  common  children  of  the  same  Creator  with 
their  brethren  in  Great  Britain.  ...  A  time  may  come 
when  Parliament  shall  declare  every  American  charter  void  j 
but  the  natural,  inherent  rights  of  the  colonists  as  men  and 
citizens  can  never  be  abolished.  The  colonists  know  the 
blood  and  treasure  independence  would  cost.  They  will 
never  think  of  it  till  driven  to  it  as  the  last  fatal  resort 
against  ministerial  oppression :  but  human  nature  must  and 
will  be  rescued  from  the  general  slavery  that  has  so  long  tri- 


THE   STAMP   ACT 


343 


umphed  over  the  species."  The  immediate  practical  result 
was,  that  the  colonists  pledged  themselves  to  use  nothing  of 
English  manufacture,  even  to  going  without  lamb  to  save 
wool.  And  even  Hutchinson  remarked  that  if  England  had 
paid  as  much  for  the  support  of  the  wars  as  had  been  volun- 
tarily paid  by  the  colonists,  there  would  have  been  no  great 
increase  in  the  national  debt. 

All  this  made  no  impression  in  England.  The  dregs  of 
the  Canadian  population  were  a  handful  of  disreputable 
Protestant  ex-officers,  traders  and  publicans — "the  most  im- 
moral collection  of  men  I  ever  knew,"  as  Murray  said — but 
judges  and  juries  were  selected  from  these  gentry,  and  the 
Catholics  were  disfranchised.  In  New  England,  boundaries 
were  rearranged,  and  colonists  had  to  buy  new  titles.  New 
York,  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  protested  before  Parlia- 
ment against  the  taxation  scheme ;  Philadelphia  at  first  peti- 
tioned to  be  delivered  from  the  selfishness  of  its  proprietors 
even  at  the  cost  of  becoming  a  royal  colony;  but  later, 
Franklin  advised  that  they  grant  supplies  to  the  crown 
only  when  required  of  them  "in  the  usual  constitutional 
manner."  George  Wythe,  speaking  for  Virginia,  remon- 
strated against  measures  "fitter  for  exiles  driven  from  their 
country  after  ignominiously  forfeiting  its  favor  and  protec- 
tion, than  for  the  posterity  of  loyal  Britons."  Yet  there 
were  many  royalist  Americans  who  were  urgent  that 
English  rule  should  be  strengthened;  and  the  English 
Board  of  Trade  declared  that  the  protests  of  the  colonies 
showed  "a  most  indecent  disrespect  to  the  legislature  of 
Great  Britain."  The  king  decreed  that  in  all  military  mat- 
ters in  America  the  orders  of  the  commander-in-chief  there, 
and  under  him  of  the  brigadiers,  should  be  supreme ;  and 
only  in  the  absence  of  these  officers  might  the  governors 
give  the  word.  This  became  important  on  the  occasion  of 
the  "Boston  Massacre"  a  few  years  later.  In  Parliament, 
Grenville  said  that  he  would  never  lend  a  hand  toward  forg- 
ing chains  for  America,  "lest  in  so  doing  I  forge  them  for 


344  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

myself";  but  he  shuffled  out  of  the  American  demand  not 
to  be  taxed  without  representation  by  declaring  that  Parlia- 
ment was  "the  common  council  of  the  whole  empire,"  and 
added  that  America  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  as  much 
represented  in  Parliament  as  many  Englishmen.  This  asser- 
tion brought  to  his  feet  Barre,  the  companion  of  Wolfe  at 
Quebec.  He  denied  that  America  was  virtually  represented, 
and  said  that  the  House  was  ignorant  of  American  affairs. 
Charles  Townshend,  who  posed  as  an  infallible  authority  on 
America,  replied  that  the  last  war  had  cost  the  colonies 
little  though  they  had  profited  much  by  it;  and  now  these 
"American  children,  planted  by  our  care,  nourished  up  to 
strength  and  opulence  by  our  indulgence,  and  protected  by 
our  arms,  grudge  to  contribute  their  mite  to  relieve  us  from 
the  heavy  burden  under  which  we  lie." 

Barre  could  not  restrain  his  indignation.  In  the  course 
of  a  fiery  rejoinder  he  uttered  truths  that  made  him  the 
most  loved  Englishman  in  America,  when  his  words  were 
published  there.  "Your  oppressions  planted  them  in  Amer- 
ica," he  thundered.  "They  met  with  pleasure  all  hardships 
compared  with  those  they  suffered  in  their  own  country. 
They  grew  by  your  neglect  of  them :  as  soon  as  you  began 
to  care  for  them,  deputies  of  members  of  this  house  were 
sent  to  spy  out  their  liberties,  to  misrepresent  their  actions, 
and  to  prey  upon  them;  men  whose  behavior  caused  the 
blood  of  those  Sons  of  Liberty  to  recoil  within  them :  men 
who  were  often  glad,  by  going  to  a  foreign  country,  to 
escape  being  brought  to  the  bar  of  justice  in  their  own. 
They  'protected  by  your  arms'? — They  have,  amid  their 
constant  and  laborious  industry,  nobly  taken  up  arms  for 
the  defense  of  a  country  whose  frontier  was  drenched  in 
blood,  while  its  interior  parts  yielded  all  its  little  savings 
to  your  emolument.  And  believe  me — remember — the  same 
spirit  of  freedom  which  actuated  that  people  at  first  will 
accompany  them  still.  They  are  as  truly  loyal  as  any  sub- 
jects the  king  has;  but  a  people  jealous  of  their  liberties, 


THE   STAMP   ACT 


345 


and  who  will  vindicate  them,  if  ever  they  should  be  vio- 
lated." But  Grenville  had  gone  too  far  to  retreat;  the  case 
went  against  America  by  two  hundred  and  forty-five  to 
forty-nine;  and  only  Beckford  and  Con  way  were  on  record 
as  denying  the  power  of  Parliament  to  enact  the  tax.  All 
petitions  from  the  colonies  were  refused.  "We  have  power 
to  tax  them,  and  we  will  tax  them,"  said  one  of  the  minis- 
ters. In  the  House  of  Lords  the  bill  was  agreed  to  without 
debate  or  dissent.  The  king,  at  the  time  of  signing  the  bill, 
was  suffering  from  one  of  his  periodic  attacks  of  insanity; 
but  the  ratification  was  accepted  as  valid  nevertheless. 
Neither  Franklin  nor  any  of  the  other  American  agents  im- 
agined the  act  would  be  forcibly  resisted  in  America.  Even 
Otis  had  said,  "We  must  submit."  But  they  reckoned 
without  their  host.  The  stamp  act  was  a  two-edged  sword; 
in  aiming  to  cut  down  the  liberties  of  America,  it  severed 
the  bonds  that  tied  her  to  the  mother  country. 

The  prospect  before  the  colonies  was  truly  intolerable. 
No  product  of  their  industry  could  be  exported  save  to  Eng- 
land; none  but  English  ships  might  enter  their  ports;  no 
wool  might  be  moved  from  one  part  of  the  country  to 
another;  no  Bible  might  be  printed  anywhere;  all  hats 
must  come  from  England;  no  ore  might  be  mined  or 
worked;  duties  were  imposed  on  almost  every  imported 
article  of  use  or  luxury.  No  marriage,  promissory  note,  or 
other  transaction  requiring  documentary  record  was  valid 
except  with  the  government  stamp.  In  a  word,  convicts  in 
a  jail  could  hardly  be  shackled  more  severely  than  were 
these  two  millions  of  the  most  freedom-loving  and  intelli- 
gent people  on  the  globe.  "If  this  system  were  to  prevail," 
remarked  Thacher  of  Boston,  "it  would  extinguish  the  flame 
of  liberty  all  over  the  world." 

But  it  was  not  to  prevail.  Patrick  Henry  had  been 
elected  to  the  legislature  of  Virginia.  His  first  act  was  to 
maintain,  in  committee  of  the  whole,  that  the  colony  had 
never  given  up  its  right  to  be  governed  by  its  own  laws 


346  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

respecting  taxation,  and  that  it  had  been  constantly  recog- 
nized by  England ;  and  that  any  attempt  to  vest  such  power 
in  other  persons  tended  to  destroy  British  as  well  as  Ameri- 
can freedom.  In  a  passionate  peroration  he  warned  George 
III.  to  remember  the  fate  of  other  tyrants  who  had  trampled 
on  popular  liberties.  Otis  in  Massachusetts  suggested  the 
novel  idea  of  summoning  a  congress  from  all  the  colonies  to 
deliberate  on  the  situation.  In  New  York  a  writer  declared 
that  while  there  was  no  disposition  among  the  colonies  to 
break  with  England  as  long  as  they  were  permitted  their 
full  rights,  yet  they  would  be  "satisfied  with  no.  less."— 
"The  Gospel  promises  liberty  and  permits  resistance,"  said 
Mayhew.  Finally,  the  dauntless  and  faithful  Christopher 
Gadsden  of  South  Carolina,  after  considering  Massachu- 
setts's  suggestion  of  a  union,  pronounced,  as  head  of  the 
committee,  in  its  favor. 

In  England,  meanwhile,  the  cause  of  the  colonies  had 
been  somewhat  favored  by  the  willfulness  of  the  king,  who, 
in  order  to  bring  his  court  favorites  into  power,  dismissed 
the  Grenville  ministry.  There  were  no  persons  of  ability  in 
the  new  cabinet,  and  vacant  feebleness  was  accounted  better 
for  America  than  resolute  will  to  oppress.  The  king  him- 
self, however,  never  wavered  in  his  resolve  that  the  colonies 
should  be  taxed.  On  the  other  hand,  the  colonies  were  at 
this  time  disposed  to  think  that  the  king  was  friendly  to 
their  liberties.  But  whatever  misapprehensions  existed  on 
either  side  were  soon  to  be  finally  dispelled. 

In  August,  1765,  the  names  of  the  stamp  distributors 
(who  were  to  be  citizens  of  the  colonies)  were  published  in 
America;  and  the  packages  of  stamped  paper  were  dis- 
patched from  England.  There  was  an  old  elm-tree  in 
Boston,  standing  near  the  corner  of  Essex  Street,  opposite 
Boylston  Market.  On  the  morning  of  the  14th  of  August, 
two  figures  were  descried  by  early  pedestrians  hanging  from 
the  lower  branches  of  the  tree.  "They  were  dressed  in 
square-skirted  coats  and  small-clothes,  and  as  their  wigs 


THE   STAMP   ACT  347 

hung  down  over  their  faces,  they  looked  like  real  men. 
One  was  intended  to  represent  the  Earl  of  Bute,  who  was 
supposed  to  have  advised  the  king  to  tax  America;  the 
other  was  meant  for  the  effigy  of  Andrew  Oliver,  a  gen- 
tleman belonging  to  one  of  the  most  respectable  families 
in  Massachusetts,  whom  the  king  had  appointed  to  be  the 
distributor  of  stamps."  It  was  in  vain  that  Hutchinson 
ordered  the  removal  of  the  effigies;  the  people  had  the  mat- 
ter in  their  own  hands.  In  the  evening  a  great  and  orderly 
crowd  marched  behind  a  bier  bearing  the  figures,  gave  three 
cheers  for  "Liberty,  Property  and  no  stamps,"  before  the 
State  House,  where  the  governor  and  Hutchinson  were  in 
session,  and  thence  went  to  the  house  which  Oliver  had 
intended  for  his  stamp  office,  tore  it  down,  and  burned  his 
image  in  the  fire  they  kindled  with  it,  in  front  of  his  own 
residence.  "Death  to  the  man  who  offers  stamped  paper  to 
sell!"  they  shouted.  "Beat  an  alarm!"  quavered  Hutchin- 
son to  the  militia  colonel. — "My  drummers  are  in  the  mob," 
was  the  reply ;  and  when  Hutchinson  attempted  to  disperse 
the  crowd,  they  forced  him  to  run  the  gantlet,  in  the  In- 
dian fashion  which  was  too  familiar  to  New  Englanders, 
and  caught  him  several  raps  as  he  ran.  "If  Oliver  had  been 
there  he'd  have  been  murdered,"  said  Governor  Bernard, 
with  conviction;  "if  he  doesn't  resign — !"  But  Oliver, 
much  as  he  loved  the  perquisites  of  the  office,  loved  his  life 
more,  and  he  resigned  before  the  mob  could  threaten  him. 
Bernard,  with  chattering  teeth,  was  ensconced  in  the  safest 
room  in  the  castle.  There  remained  Hutchinson,  in  his 
handsome  house  in  Garden  Court  Street,  near  the  North 
Square.  Late  at  night  the  mob  came  surging  and  roaring 
in  that  direction.  As  they  turned  into  Garden  Court  Street, 
the  sound  of  them  was  as  if  a  wild  beast  had  broken  loose 
and  was  howling  for  its  prey.  From  the  window,  the  terri- 
fied chief -justice  beheld  "an  immense  concourse  of  people, 
rolling  onward  like  a  tempestuous  flood  that  had  swelled 
beyond  its  bounds  and  would  sweep  everything  before  it. 


348  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

He  felt,  at  that  momeiit,  that  the  wrath  of  the  people  was  a 
thousand-fold  more  terrible  than  the  wrath  of  a  king.  That 
was  a  moment  when  an  aristocrat  and  a  loyalist  might  have 
learned  how  powerless  are  kings,  nobles,  and  great  men, 
when  the  low  and  humble  range  themselves  against  them. 
Had  Hutchinson  understood  and  remembered  this  lesson  he 
need  not  in  after  years  have  been  an  exile  from  his  native 
country,  nor  finally  have  laid  his  bones  in  a  distant  land." 
The  mob  broke  into  the  house,  destroyed  the  valuable 
furniture,  pictures  and  library,  and  completely  gutted  it. 
The  act  was  denounced  and  repudiated  by  the  better  class 
of  patriots,  like  Adams  and  Mayhew;  but  it  served  a  good 
purpose.  The  voice  of  the  infuriated  mob  is  sometimes  the 
only  one  that  tyranny  can  hear.  One  after  another  all  the 
colonies  refused  to  accept  the  stamp  act,  and  every  stamp 
officer  was  obliged  to  resign.  Meanwhile  the  leaders  dis- 
cussed the  people's  rights  openly.  The  law  was  to  go  into 
effect  on  November  1st.  "Will  you  violate  the  law  of  Par- 
liament?" was  asked.  "The  stamp  act  is  against  Magna 
Charta,  and  Lord  Coke  says  an  act  of  Parliament  against 
Magna  Charta  is  for  that  reason  void,"  was  the  reply. 
"Rulers  are  attorneys,  agents  and  trustees  of  the  people," 
said  Adams,  "and  if  the  trust  is  betrayed  or  wantonly  tri- 
fled away,  the  people  have  a  right  to  revoke  the  authority 
that  they  themselves  have  deputed,  and  to  constitute  abler 
and  better  agents.  We  have  an  indisputable  right  to  de- 
mand our  privileges  against  all  the  power  and  authority  on 
earth."  Never  had  there  been  such  unanimity  throughout 
the  colonies;  but  in  New  York,  General  Gage,  who  had  be- 
trayed lack  of  courage  under  Amherst  a  few  years  before, 
but  who  was  now  commander-in-chief,  declared  he  would 
put  down  disaffection  with  a  strong  hand.  There  were 
ships  of  war  in  the  harbor,  and  the  fort  in  the  town 
mounted  heavy  guns.  Major  James  of  the  artillery  was 
intrusted  with  the  preparations.  "I'll  cram  the  stamps 
down  their  throats  with  the  end  of  my  sword:  if  they 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  RUBICON  349 

attempt  to  rise  I'll  drive  them  out  of  town  for  a  pack  of 
rascals,  with  four  and  twenty  men  I"  It  was  easy  to  pass 
a  stamp  act,  and  to  bring  stamped  paper  into  the  colonies; 
but  it  would  take  more  than  Major  James,  and  Governor 
Golden,  and  General  Gage  himself  to  make  the  people  swal- 
low them.  The  day  of  the  "Sons  of  Liberty"  was  dawning. 


CHAPTER    THIRTEENTH 

THE  PASSING  OF  THE  RUBICON 

SSUE  was  now  joined  between  America  and 
England.  They  faced  each  other — the  great, 
historic  figure,  and  the  stripling  of  a  century 
— and  knew  that  the  limit  had  been  reached. 
The  next  move  might  be  irrevocable.  "You 
must  submit  to  the  tax." — "I  will  not  submit." 
Englishmen,  with  some  few  eminent  exceptions,  believed 
that  England  was  in  the  right.  If  the  word  of  Parliament 
was  not  law,  what  was?  If  the  law  it  made  could  be  disre- 
garded, what  could  stand?  A  colony  was  a  child :  children 
must  be  kept  in  subjection.  Colonies  were  planted  for  the 
benefit  and  extension  of  commerce;  if  they  were  permitted 
to  conduct  their  commerce  without  regard  to  the  mother 
country,  their  reason  for  existence  was  gone.  The  protec- 
tion of  a  colony  was  expensive:  why  should  not  the  pro- 
tected one  bear  a  part  at  least  of  the  expense?  If  the 
mother  country  allowed  the  colony  to  fix  the  amount  it 
should  pay,  what  guarantee  could  she  have  that  it  would 
pay  anything?  Could  mighty  England  assume  toward  little 
America  the  attitude  of  a  tradesman,  humbly  standing  at 


35C  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  door  with  a  bill,  asking  whether  it  would  be  convenient 
to  pay  something  on  account?  If  there  were  to  be  conde- 
scension, it  should  not  come  from  America.  She  clamored 
for  justice;  England  would  be  just:  but  she  must  first  be 
obeyed.  England  might  forgive  the  debt,  but  must  insist 
upon  acknowledgment  that  the  debt  was  due,  and  upon  the 
right  to  collect  it  at  pleasure.  As  for  the  plea  that  taxation 
should  postulate  representation,  it  would  not  bear  examina- 
tion. It  might  be  true  that  Parliament  was  theoretically  a 
representative  body;  but,  in  fact,  it  was  a  gathering  of  the 
men  in  England  best  qualified  to  govern,  who  were  rather 
selected  than  elected.  Many  of  the  commons  held  their 
seats  by  favor  of  the  nobility;  the  suffrage,  as  practiced, 
was  a  recognition  that  the  people  might  have  a  voice  in  the 
government  of  the  country ;  but  that  voice  was  not  to  be  a 
deciding  one.  It  was  exercised  only  by  a  part  of  the  people, 
and  even  then,  largely  under  advice  or  influence.  Many  im- 
portant towns  and  districts  had  no  representatives.  Ameri- 
cans were  as  well  off  as  these  Englishmen ;  on  what  ground 
could  they  demand  to  be  better  off?  They  must  trust  to  the 
will  of  England  to  secure  their  advantage  in  securing  her 
own ;  to  her  wisdom,  equity,  and  benevolence.  "Why  should 
they  complain  of  the  Navigation  Acts?  What  more  did  they 
want  than  a  market? — and  that,  England  afforded.  Why 
should  they  feel  aggrieved  at  the  restriction  on  their  manu- 
factures? England  could  manufacture  articles  better  than 
they  could,  and  it  was  necessary  to  the  well-being  of  her 
manufacturing  classes  that  they  should  be  free  from  Ameri- 
can competition.  Did  they  object  to  the  measures  England 
took  to  prevent  smuggling  and  illicit  dealing? — They  had 
only  themselves  to  blame :  was  it  not  notorious  that  evasions 
and  open  violations  of  the  law  had  for  years  existed?  Did 
they  object  to  royal  governors? — What  better  expedient  was 
there  to  keep  the  two  countries  in  touch  with  each  other — 
to  maintain  that  "representation"  in  England  which  they 
craved?  —  whereas,  were  they  to  choose  governors  from 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  RUBICON  351 

among  themselves,  they  would  soon  drift  away  from  sym- 
pathy with  and  understanding  of  England.  And  why  all 
this  uproar  about  the  stamp  tax?  What  easier,  more  equita- 
ble way  could  be  devised  to  get  the  financial  tribute  required 
without  pressing  hard  on  any  one?  If  Americans  would 
object  to  that,  they  would  object  to  anything;  and  they 
must  either  be  abandoned  entirely  to  their  own  devices — 
which  of  course  was  out  of  the  question— or  they  must  be 
compelled,  if  they  would  not  do  it  voluntarily,  to  accede  to 
it.  Compulsion  meant  force;  force  meant  a  resident  En- 
glish army ;  and  that  army  must  be  supported  and  accom- 
modated by  those  for  whose  regulation  it  was  established. 

Such  was  the  attitude  of  men  like  Lord  Chief-justice 
Mansfield,  who  spoke  on  the  subject  in  the  House  of  Lords. 
He  refused  to  recognize  any  essential  distinction  between 
external  and  internal  taxes;  though,  as  Pitt  pointed  out,  the 
former  was  designed  for  the  regulation  of  trade,  and  what- 
ever profit  arose  from  it  was  incidental ;  \*hile  the  latter  was 
imposed  to  raise  revenue  for  the  home  government,  and  was, 
in  effect,  arbitrarily  appropriating  the  property  of  subjects 
without  their  consent  asked  or  obtained.  Pitt  disposed  of 
the  argument  of  virtual  representation  by  denying  it  point- 
blank  ;  Americans  were  not  in  the  same  position  with  those 
Englishmen  who  were  not  directly  represented  in  Parlia- 
ment ;  because  the  latter  were  inhabitants  of  the  kingdom, 
and  could  be,  and  were  indirectly  represented  in  a  hundred 
ways.  But  while  opposing  the  right  of  Parliament  to  rob 
America,  he  asserted  in  the  strongest  terms  its  right  to  gov- 
ern her.  "The  will  of  Parliament,  properly  signified,  must 
forever  keep  the  colonies  dependent  upon  the  sovereign  king- 
dom of  Great  Britain.  If  any  idea  of  renouncing  allegiance 
has  existed,  it  was  but  a  momentary  frenzy.  In  a  good 
cause,  the  force  of  this  country  can  crush  America  to  atoms. 
But  on  this  ground  of  the  stamp  act,  I  am  one  who  will  lift 
up  my  hands  against  it.  I  rejoice  that  America  has  re- 
sisted. In  such  a  cause,  your  success  would  be  hazardous. 


352  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

America,  if  she  fell,  would  embrace  the  pillar  of  the  state, 
and  pull  down  the  constitution  along  with  her. ' ' 

The  Lords  passed  the  bill  against  a  minority  of  five.  In 
the  Commons,  where  Burke  ardently  spoke  in  favor  of  the 
tax,  the  majority  was  even  greater.  "It  was  decided  that 
irresponsible  taxation  was  not  a  tyranny  but  a  vested  right ; 
that  Parliament  held  legislative  power,  not  as  a  representa- 
tive body  but  in  absolute  trust:  that  it  was  not  and  had 
never  been  responsible  to  the  people."  This  was  the  new 
Toryism,  which  was  to  create  a  new  opposition.  The  debate 
aroused  a  discussion  of  popular  rights  in  England  itself,  and 
the  press  began  to  advocate  genuine  representation.  Mean- 
while, it  looked  ill  for  the  colonies.  But  a  law  which  is  only 
engrossed  on  parchment,  and  is  not  also  founded  in  natural 
truth  and  justice,  has  no  binding  power,  even  though  it  be 
supported  by  the  army  and  navy  of  England.  Humanity 
was  on  the  side  of  America,  and  made  her  small  numbers 
and  physical  weakness  as  strong  as  all  that  is  good  and 
right  in  the  world.  All  appearances  to  the  contrary  not- 
withstanding, there  is  nothing  real  but  right.  Had  America 
fought  only  for  herself,  she  would  have  failed. 

The  instances  of  mob  violence  in  the  colonies  at  this 
period  were  not  to  be  classed  with  lawless  outbreaks  in 
countries  which  have  a  government  of  their  own.  The  colo- 
nies were  subjected  to  a  government  which  they  did  not 
elect  or  approve ;  and  the  management  of  their  affairs  con- 
sequently reverted  inevitably  and  rightly  to  the  body  of  the 
people  themselves.  They  had  no  officers  and  no  organiza- 
tion, but  they  knew  what  they  wanted ;  and  having  in  view 
the  slowness  of  inter-communication,  and  the  differences  in 
the  ideas  and  customs  of  the  several  colonies,  the  unanimity 
of  their  action  in  the  present  juncture  is  surprising.  When 
their  congress  met  in  New  York  on  the  7th  of  October,  1765, 
their  debate  was  less  as  to  principles  than  as  to  the  manner 
of  their  declaration  and  enforcement.  The  watchword, 
"Join  or  die,"  had  been  started  in  September,  and  was 


THE   PASSING   OF   THE   RUBICON  353 

taken  up  all  over  the  country.  Union  was  strength,  and  on 
union  all  were  resolved.  The  mob  had  put  a  stop  to  the 
execution  of  the  law;  it  now  rested  with  the  congress  to 
settle  in  what  way  and  on  what  grounds  the  repeal  of  the 
law  should  be  demanded.  -Against  the  people  and  the  con- 
gress were  arrayed  the  royal  governors  and  other  officials, 
and  the  troops.  The  former  deluged  the  home  government 
with  exhortations  to  be  firm ;  the  latter  waited  the  word  to 
act,  not  without  misgivings;  for  here  were  two  million  in- 
habitants, a  third  or  fourth  part  of  whom  might  bear  arms. 
Should  the  congress  base  its  liberties  on  charter  rights, 
or  on  natural  justice  and  universal  reason? — On  the  latter, 
said  Gadsden  of  South  Carolina;  and  the  rest  acceded. 
"I  wish,"  Gadsden  had  said,  "that  the  charters  may  not 
ensnare  us  at  last  by  drawing  different  colonies  to  act  dif- 
ferently in  this  great  cause.  There  ought  to  be  no  New 
England  man,  no  New  Yorker,  known  on  the  continent,  but 
all  Americans. ' '  It  was  a  great  truth  to  be  enunciated  at 
that  tune.  There  were  statesmen  less  wise  in  this  country 
a  hundred  years  later.  The  Duke  of  Choiseul,  premier  of 
France,  and  one  of  the  acutest  ministers  that  ever  lived, 
foresaw  the  independence  of  America,  and  even  so  early 
began  to  take  measures  having  in  view  the  attitude  of 
France  in  that  contingency. — In  the  congress,  Otis  advo- 
cated repeal,  not  of  the  stamp  act  alone,  but  of  all  acts  lay- 
ing a  duty  on  trade;  and  it  was  finally  agreed  to  mention 
the  latter  as  grievances.  Trial  by  jury  was  stipulated  for 
instead  of  admiralty  jurisdiction;  taxes  should  be  imposed 
only  by  colonial  legislatures,  representation  in  Parliament 
being  impracticable.  One  or  two  of  the  delegates  feared  to 
sign  the  document  embodying  these  views  and  demands; 
whereupon  Dyer  of  Connecticut  observed  that  since  dis- 
union in  these  matters  was  fatal,  the  remaining  delegates 
ought  to  sign  them ;  and  this  was  done,  only  Ruggles  and 
Ogden,  of  Massachusetts  and  of  New  Jersey  respectively, 
declining.  By  this  act  the  colonies  became  "a  bundle  of 


354  HISTORY  OF   THE  *  UNITED   STATES 

sticks  which  could  neither  be  bent  nor  broken."  At  the 
same  time,  Samuel  Adams  addressed  a  letter  to  Governor 
Bernard  of  Massachusetts.  "To  suppose  a  right  in  Parlia- 
ment to  tax  subjects  without  their  consent  includes  the  idea 
of  a  despotic  power,"  said  he.  "The  stamp  act  cancels  the 
very  conditions  upon  which  our  ancestors,  with  toil  and 
blood  and  at  their  sole  expense,  settled  this  country.  It 
tends  to  destroy  that  mutual  confidence  and  affection,  as 
well  as  that  equality  which  ought  to  subsist 'among  all  his 
majesty's  subjects:  and  what  is  worst  of  all  evils,  if  his 
majesty's  subjects  are  not  to  be  governed  according  to  the 
known  and  stated  rules  of  the  constitution,  their  minds  may 
in  time  become  disaffected. ' ' 

On  the  1st  of  November,  the  day  when  the  act  was  to 
go  into  effect,  Golden,  governor  of  New  York,  "resolved 
to  have  the  stamps  distributed."  The  army  and  navy  pro- 
fessed themselves  ready  to  support  him.  But  the  population 
rose  up  in  a  body  against  it,  with  Isaac  Sears  as  leader.  "If 
you  fire  on  us,  we'll  hang  you,"  they  told  Golden.  Torch- 
light processions,  with  the  governor's  effigy  burned  in  a 
bonfire  composed  of  his  own  carriages,  right  under  the  guns 
of  the  fort  in  which  he  had  taken  refuge,  followed.  Golden 
capitulated,  and  even  gave  up  the  stamps  into  the  custody 
of  the  people.  Similar  scenes  were  enacted  in  the  other  col- 
onies. The  principle  of  "union  and  liberty"  became  daily 
more  deeply  rooted.  If  England  refused  to  repeal  the  act, 
"we  will  repeal  it  ourselves,"  declared  the  colonists.  John 
Adams  said  that  the  colonies  were  already  discharged  from 
allegiance,  because  they  were  "out  of  the  king's  protection" 
— protection  and  allegiance  being  reciprocal.  The  Sons  of 
Liberty  became  a  recognized  organization.  The  press 
printed  an  admonition  to  George  III.,  brief  but  pithy: 
GREAT  SIR,  RETREAT,  OR  YOU  ARE  RUINED. 
Otis  maintained  that  the  king,  by  mismanaging  colonial 
affairs,  had  practically  abdicated,  so  far  as  they  were  con- 
cerned. Israel  Putnam,  being  of  an  active  turn,  rode 


THE   PASSING   OF   THE   RUBICON  355 

through  Connecticut  to  count  noses,  and  reported  that  he 
could  raise  a  force  of  ten  thousand  men.  Meanwhile  the 
routine  business  of  the  country  went  on  with  but  slight 
modification,  though  according  to  the  stamp  act  nothing 
that  was  done  without  a  stamp  was  good  in  law.  But  it 
appeared,  upon  experiment,  that  if  the  law  was  in  the  peo- 
ple it  could  be  dispensed  with  on  paper.  And  wherever  you 
went,  you  found  a  population  smilingly  clad  in  homespun. 

Would  England  repeal  the  act?  The  House  of  Lords 
voted  hi  favor  of  enforcing  it  February,  1766.  In  the  Com- 
mons, General  Howard  declared  that  if  it  were  passed, 
rather  than  imbrue  his  hands  in  the  blood  of  his  country- 
men, he  would  sheathe  his  sword  in  his  own  body.  The 
House  divided  two  to  one  against  the  repeal.  The  king  said 
he  was  willing  to  modify,  but  not  to  repeal  it.  On  the  13th 
Franklin  was  summoned  to  the  bar.  He  showed  why  the 
colonies  could  not  and  would  not  pay  the  tax,  and  that 
unless  it  were  repealed,  their  affection  for  England,  and 
the  commerce  depending  thereon,  would  be  lost.  Would 
America  pay  a  modified  stamp  duty? — he  was  asked;  and 
bravely  replied,  "No:  never:  they  will  never  submit  to  it." 
But  could  not  a  military  force  carry  the  act  into  effect? — 
"They  cannot  force  a  man  to  take  stamps  who  chooses  to 
do  without  them,"  was  the  answer.  He  added  that  the 
colonists  thought  it  hard  that  a  body  in  which  they  were 
not  represented  should  make  a  merit  of  giving  what  was 
not  its  own  but  theirs.  He  affirmed  a  difference  between 
internal  and  external  taxation,  because  the  former  could  not 
be  evaded,  whereas  articles  of  consumption,  on  which  the 
duty  formed  part  of  the  price,  could  be  dispensed  with  at 
will.  "But  what  if  necessaries  of  life  should  be  taxed?' ' 
asked  Grenville,  thinking  he  had  Franklin  on  the  hip.  But 
the  American  sage  crushingly  replied,  "I  do  not  know  a 
single  article  imported  into  the  colonies  but  what  they  can 
either  do  without  it,  or  make  it  for  themselves." 

In  the  final  debates,  Pitt,  called   on  to  say  whether, 


356  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES 

should  total  repeal  be  granted,  in  compliance  with  Ameri- 
can menaces  of  resistance,  the  consequence  would  not  be  the 
overthrow  of  British  authority  in  America,  gave  his  voice 
for  repeal  as  a  right.  Grenville,  on- the  other  hand,  thought 
that  America  should  learn  that  "prayers  are  not  to  be 
brought  to  Caesar  through  riot  and  sedition."  The  vote  for 
repeal,  and  agaiact  modified  enforcement,  was  two  hundred 
and  seventy-five  to  one  hundred  and  sixty-seven.  The  dis- 
senting members  of  the  Lords  signed  a  protest,  because, 
should  they  assent  to  the  repeal  merely  because  it  had 
passed  the  lower  house,  "we  in  effect  vote  ourselves  use- 
less." This  suggests  the  "Je  ne  vois  pas  la  necessite"  of 
the  French  epigrammatist.  The  Lords  took  themselves  too 
seriously.  Meanwhile,  Bow  bells  were  rung,  Pitt  was 
cheered,  and  flags  flew;  the  news  was  sent  to  America 
in  fast  packets,  and  the  rejoicing  in  the  colonies  was  great. 
Prisoners  for  debt  were  set  free,  there  were  illuminations 
and  bonfires,  and  honor  was  paid  to  Pitt,  Camden,  Barre, 
and  to  the  king,  who  was  eating  his  heart  with  vexation  at 
having  been  compelled  to  assent  to  what  he  called  "the 
fatal  repeal." 

The  British  government,  while  repealing  the  law,  had 
yet  affirmed  its  sovereign  authority  over  the  colonies.  The 
colonies,  on  the  other  hand,  were  inclined  to  confirm  their 
present  advantage  and  take  a  step  still  further  in  advance. 
They  would  not  be  taxed  without  representation;  why 
should  they  submit  to  any  legislation  whatever  without 
representation?  What  right  had  England  to  enforce  the 
Navigation  Acts?  The  more  the  general  situation  was 
contemplated  and  discussed,  the  plainer  to  all  did  it  ap- 
pear that  union  was  indispensable.  The  governors  of  most 
of  the  colonies  were  directing  a  treacherous  attack  against 
the  charters ;  but  bold  students  of  the  drift  of  things  were 
foreseeing  a  time  when  charters  might  be  superseded  by  in- 
dependence. Patriots  everywhere  were  keenly  on  the  watch 
for  any  symptoms  of  a  design  on  Parliament's  part  to  faise 


THE   PASSING   OF   THE   RUBICON  357 

a  revenue  from  America.  The  presence  and  quartering  of 
English  soldiers  in  the  colonies  was  regarded  as  not  only 
a  burden,  but  an  insinuation.  It  was  moreover  a  constant 
occasion  of  disturbance ;  for  there  was  no  love  lost  between 
the  people  and  the  soldiers.  But,  that  there  was  no  dispo- 
sition on  the  people's  part  to  pick  quarrels  or  to  borrow 
trouble,  was  evident  from  their  voluntarily  passing  resolu- 
tions for  the  reimbursement  of  persons,  like  Hutchinson, 
who  had  suffered  loss  from  the  riots.  If  England  would 
treat  them  like  reasonable  creatures,  they  were  more  than 
willing  to  meet  her  half  way.  It  is  probable  that  but  for 
the  royal  governors,  England  and  America  might  have 
arrived  at  an  amicable  understanding;  yet,  in  the  ultimate 
interests  of  both  countries,  it  was  better  that  the  evil  coun- 
selors of  the  day  should  prevail. 

Townshend,  an  able,  eloquent,  but  entirely  untrustwor- 
thy man,  devoted  to  affairs,  and  of  insatiable  though  un- 
principled ambition,  proposed  in  Parliament  to  formulate  a 
plan  to  derive  a  permanent  revenue  from  America.  This 
Parliament  has  been  described  by  historians,  and  is  convicted 
by  its  record,  as  the  most  corrupt,  profligate  and  unscrupu- 
lous in  English  annals.  "William  Pitt,  who  had  accepted 
the  title  of  Lord  Chatham,  and  entered  the  House  of  Lords, 
was  nominally  the  leader,  but  his  health  and  failing  facul- 
ties left  him  no  real  power.  Shelburne,  Secretary  of  State, 
was  moderate  and  liberal,  but  no  match  for  Townshend's 
brilliancy.  The  latter's  proposal  was  to  suspend  the  legis- 
lature of  New  York,  as  a  punishment  for  the  insubordina- 
tion of  the  colony  and  a  warning  to  others;  to  support  a 
resident  army,  and  to  pay  salaries  to  governors,  judges  and 
other  crown  officers,  out  of  the  revenue  from  America;  to 
establish  commissioners  of  the  customs  in  the  country;  to 
legalize  general  writs  of  assistance ;  to  permit  no  native-born 
American  to  hold  office  under  the  crown ;  and  to  make  the 
revenue  derivable  from  specified  taxes  on  imports.  The  tax 
on  tea  was  among  those  particularly  mentioned.  This  was 


358  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

the  scheme  which  was  to  be  substituted  for  the  repealed 
stamp  tax;  the  colonies  had  objected  to  that  as  internal; 
this  was  external,  and,  though  Townshend  had  refused  to 
admit  any  difference  between  the  two,  he  now  employed  it 
as  a  means  of  bringing  the  colonies  to  terms.  The  measure 
was  received  with  acclaim  by  Parliament,  though  it  was 
contrary  to  the  real  sentiment  of  the  English  nation.  The 
king  was  charmed  with  it.  Townshend  died  soon  after  it 
was  passed,  at  the  age  of  forty-one;  and  the  king  called  on 
Lord  North  to  take  his  place;  a  man  of  infirm  will,  but 
able,  well-informed  and  clear-minded,  with  a  settled  predis- 
position against  the  cause  of  the  people.  He  was  as  good 
an  enemy  of  America  as  Grenville  himself,  though  a  less 
ill-natured  one. 

But,  viewing  this  period  broadly,  it  is  manifest  that  the 
finest  brains  and  best  hearts,  both  in  England  and  America, 
were  friends  to  the  cause  of  liberty.  America,  certainly,  at 
this  critical  epoch  in  her  career,  produced  a  remarkable  band 
of  statesmen  and  patriots,  perfectly  fitted  to  the  parts  they 
had  to  play.  The  two  Adamses,  Gadsden,  Franklin,  Otis, 
Patrick  Henry,  Livingstone  of  New  York,  John  Hancock, 
the  wealthy  and  splendid  Boston  merchant,  Hawley  of  Con- 
necticut, and  Washington,  meditating  upon  the  liberties  of 
his  country  in  the  retirement  of  Mount  Vernon,  and  uncon- 
sciously preparing  himself  to  lead  her  armies  through  the 
Revolution — there  has  never  been  a  company  of  better  men 
active  at  one  time  in  any  country.  Just  at  this  juncture, 
too,  there  arose  in  Delaware  a  prophet  by  the  name  of  John 
Dickinson,  who  wrote  under  the  title  of  The  Farmer,  and 
who  formulated  an  argument  against  the  new  revenue  law 
which  caught  the  attention  of  all  the  colonies.  England,  he 
pointed  out,  prohibits  American  manufactures;  she  now 
lays  duties  on  importations,  for  the  purpose  of  revenue  only. 
Americans  were  taking  steps  to  establish  a  league  to  abstain 
from  purchasing  any  articles  brought  from  England,  intend- 
ing thus  to  defeat  the  operation  of  the  act  without  breaking 


THE   PASSING   OF   THE   RUBICON  359 

the  law.  This  might  answer  in  the  case  of  luxuries,  or  of 
things  which  could  be  made  at  home.  But  what  if  England 
were  to  meet  this  move  by  laying  a  duty  on  some  necessary 
of  life,  and  then  forbid  Americans  to  manufacture  it  at 
home?  Obviously,  they  would  then  be  constrained  to  buy 
it,  paying  the  duty,  and  thus  surrendering  then:  freedom. 
From  this  point  of  view  it  would  not  be  enough  to  evade 
the  tax;  it  must  be  repealed,  or  resisted;  and  resistance 
meant  war. 

Unless,  however,  some  action  of  an  official  character 
were  taken,  binding  the  colonies  to  co-operation,  it  was  evi- 
dent that  the  law  would  gradually  go  into  effect.  The 
Massachusetts  assembly,  early  in  1768,  sent  to  its  London 
agent  a  letter,  composed  by  Samuel  Adams,  embodying 
their  formal  protest  to  the  articles  of  the  revenue  act  and 
its  corollaries.  At  the  same  time,  they  sent  copies  of  the 
statement  to  the  other  colonial  assemblies  in  the  country, 
accompanied  with  the  suggestion  that  all  unite  in  discontin- 
uing the  use  of  British  imported  manufactures  and  other 
articles.  The  crown  officers,  for  their  part,  renewed  their 
appeal  to  England  for  naval  and  military  forces  to  compel 
obedience  and  secure  order. 

The  king  and  the  government  inclined  to  think  that 
force  was  the  remedy  in  this  case.  It  was  in  vain  that  the 
more  magnanimous  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  an  army 
and  navy  could  not  compel  a  man  to  buy  a  black  broadcloth 
coat,  if  he  liked  a  homespun  one  better.  Inflammatory  re- 
ports from  America  represented  it  as  being  practically  in  a 
state  of  insurrection.  A  Boston  newspaper,  which  had  pub- 
lished a  severe  arraignment  of  Governor  Bernard,  was  tried 
for  libel,  and  the  jury,  though  informed  by  Hutchinson  that 
if  they  did  not  convict  of  high  treason  they  "might  depend  on 
being  damned, "  brought  in  a  verdict  of  acquittal.  The  Adams 
letter  was  laid  before  the  English  ministry  and  pronounced 
to  be  " of  a  most  dangerous  and  factious  tendency,"  and  an 
injunction  was  dispatched  to  the  several  colonial  governors 


360  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES 

to  bid  their  assemblies  to  treat  it  with  contempt,  and  if  they 
declined,  to  dissolve  them.  Gage  was  ordered  to  enforce 
tranquillity.  But  the  colonial  resistance  had  thus  far  been 
passive  only.  The  assemblies  now  declared  that  they  had 
exclusive  right  to  tax  the  people ;  Virginia  not  only  agreed 
to  the  Adams  letter,  but  indited  one  even  more  uncompro- 
mising; Pennsylvania  and  New  York  fell  into  line.  A 
Boston  committee  presented  an  address  to  Bernard  asking 
him  to  mediate  between  the  people  and  England ;  he  prom- 
ised to  do  so,  but  at  the  same  time  sent  out  secret  requests 
to  have  regiments  sent  to  Boston.  Divining  his  duplicity, 
John  Adams,  at  the  next  town  meeting,  formulated  the  peo- 
ple's resolve  to  vindicate  their  rights  "at  the  utmost  haz- 
ard of  their  lives  and  fortunes,"  declaring  that  whosoever 
should  solicit  the  importation  of  troops  was  "an  enemy  to 
this  town  and  province."  The  determination  not  to  rescind 
the  principles  stated  in  the  Samuel  Adams  letter  of  January 
was  unanimous.  Lord  Mansfield  thereupon  declared  that 
the  Americans  must  be  reduced  to  entire  obedience  before 
their  alleged  grievances  could  be  considered.  Camden  con- 
fessed that  he  did  not  know  what  to  do;  the  law  must  be 
executed:  but  how?  "If  any  province  is  to  be  chastised,  it 
should  be  Boston."  Finally,  two  regiments  and  a  squadron 
were  ordered  to  Boston  from  Halifax.  Samuel  Adams  felt 
that  the  time  was  now  at  hand  either  for  independence  or 
annihilation,  and  he  affirmed  publicly  that  the  colonists 
would  be  justified  in  "destroying  every  British  soldier 
whose  foot  should  touch  the  shore."  In  the  country 
round  Boston,  thirty  thousand  men  were  ready  to  fight. 
A  meeting  was  called  in  Faneuil  Hall,  and  it  resolved  that 
"the  inhabitants  of  the  Town  of  Boston  will  at  the  utmost 
peril  of  their  lives  and  fortunes  maintain  and  defend  their 
rights,  liberties,  privileges  and  immunities." — "And,"  said 
Otis,  pointing  to  four  hundred  muskets  which  had  been 
collected,  "there  are  your  arms;  when  an  attempt  is  made 
against  your  liberties,  they  will  be  delivered."  Bernard, 


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Form  L9-25,n-9,'47(A5618)444 


E 

178 
H31 
v.l 


i*5**!?!*!"  *<**«.  LBflABY  FACILITY 


A    001  263167    i 


ALIFORNIA, 


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CALIF. 


